


Snow Point - Academy of Magic

by Quetzalcoatls



Series: Snow Point [1]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, heralds of valdamar
Genre: Future AU of Heralds of Valdamar, Lamia, Mage Wars(era), NO harem/soulmate/mate ect, Ron Bashing, Sorcerer Adept!Harry, Time Travel, bad!Dumbledore, badass!hermione, creature!Harry, gryphons, white gryphon, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 96,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2813831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quetzalcoatls/pseuds/Quetzalcoatls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the end of fourth year Voldamort has returned, but Harry isn’t waiting for him to make the first move. He has found a way to maybe put the bastard in his grave for good. Snow point Academy, hidden in the frozen reaches of the Antarctic Ocean is nothing like Hogwarts, but that seems to be just what harrys going to need to survive.  Darker and more terrible things are moving in the shadows however, and in stepping onto the international stage more than one set of eyes are now on him. But Magic and Destiny have a few more tricks up their sleeves. </p><p>fusion with Heralds of Valdemar(fut. AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who I Am

**Author's Note:**

> i'm moving this over here from FF.net. its got 18 chapters right now, ill get them all up over the course of the next week or so, so enjoy!
> 
> also, never posted here before. excuse me while i work the formatting and posting kinks out.

**Snow Point Academy of Magic**

**Chapter 1** : Who I Am - Smile Empty Soul

The library had been no different than usual that morning, not unless you counted one frustrated and frantic 4th year trying to ensure his continued survival. As far as Harry was concerned the first task had been a fluke, and the second task had just been another incident of his absurd luck showing through once more. Harry knew without a doubt however that his luck was going to run out someday, and it could just as easily be in that maze tomorrow as ten years from now.

If there was one thing Harry didn't want to do, it was die - let alone die in another one of Dumbledore's damn schemes. Oh don't get him wrong, he knew Dumbledore hadn't put his name in that goblet, but he also knew that the old bastard would quite happily look the other way if the situation would work with his plans.

That was how it had been for the last three years, and he saw no reason for Dumbledore to change his tune now. As much as he loved this castle and considered it his home, it had fast become a dangerous prison, a prison he needed to escape if he wanted to live to seventeen, let alone old age. Harry smiled humorlessly at the book on the table...living, could he even really say that he was 'living'? Surviving maybe, but not living. What did it even mean to live?

He doubted he would ever know the answer.

While Harry poured over a spell book and contemplated his rather grim prospects in life, another was watching him and listening to his thoughts. Hogwarts was indeed alive as many over the years had speculated, but her mind was nothing like a human's. The ancient castle could be said to have more in common with a tree then a human as far as her mind went.

That's not to say she wasn't aware of those who lived within her walls, she most certainly was. They were her children and she would protect them to the best of her abilities until not even two stones of her walls rested upon each other. But her thoughts were slow, spanning decades, not moments, and rarely could a single soul rouse her enough to gain her singular attention. This child though, this child had...

She had seen him that first year when he fought the foul beast that had been allowed within her walls. Though she hated to acknowledge it, the child was right. If he wished to live he would have to go elsewhere. Hours passed while Harry studied and Hogwarts contemplated a way to protect this one child from threats she was prevented from sealing outside her walls. Everyone in the castle felt a strange sense of sadness leeched into their minds as the Castle finally made her decision, though few recognized it for what it was, thinking it only the cloudy weather making them feel morose.

High in Ravenclaw tower however, a blond and blue-eyed third year curled up under her blankets, tears leaking from her eyes. She knew where the sadness came from. She may not have know exactly what brought the castle to such a feeling, but she knew that something was going to happen, and when something happened there was usually one particular Gryffindor at the center.

When Hogwarts finally acted there were no dramatics, no spells of great power enacted. When you were as old as Hogwarts was you knew how to start a landslide with the tiniest pebble. And so a single book vanished from the shelves of the library and found its way into Harry's trunk, buried deep under all his things and not to be discovered until two weeks into the summer. Hogwarts contemplated her work for a long moment, if she had been human she would have smiled. Yes, her little lion could do it. He would slip his leash, and become a force to be reckoned with.

X X X

**July 1st summer after 4th year**

Harry could honestly say that this was _not_ his worst summer to date. That title was still held by the summer of second year. So far everyone was ignoring him, he may be starving, but that was hardly a new development. No one was screaming at him, or demanding he do every single little chore that Petunia could possibly come up with. So, all in all, not to shabby.

However, that didn't change the fact that he was bored out of his mind. He rolled over, glaring at the books stacked up on his desk. At this point he had reread all of them, _twice._ Hermione would be so please, but he hadn't talked to her all summer.

Hedwig would return with unopened letters if he sent her out. About a week into the summer he had received an answer to this situation when Fawkes had arrived with a note from Dumbledore telling him that for his and his friends' safety he would be blocking all mail either way so no owls could be tracked. That announcement had been accompanied by a fair bit of snarling and snapped pencils on Harry's part.

Only one thing had made the weeks of isolation even vaguely bearably. Moony and Padfoot had decided to circumvent Dumbledore's 'no training Harry in anything remotely useful rule', unspoken though it may be, and had sent letters to him all summer after third year along with one very special potion.

Harry smirked and looked down at his hand and began to concentrate hard, watching as deep blue-gray fur slowly started to sprout, even as his fingers morphed into wicked claws. He stopped after a few moments breathing a little hard but pleased none the less, it had only taken a minute.

Where a human hand had once been there was now a furred paw, tipped with black claws. Hermione would blow a gasket if she knew the Marauders were teaching him how to be an animagus, but Harry would weather her wrath for this any day. He had managed to transform completely once already at the end of the year, but it had taken nearly an hour to change and almost three to change back.

This had been celebrated with a bottle of fire whiskey in the shrieking shack with both of the Marauders. Harry had been a little put out to realize that Sirius hadn't left the country like everyone thought. They had both laughed at that, pointing out that that's the whole reason no one would think to look for him in Britain. When he had voiced concern over how long it took him to change Sirius had been quick to point out that he was already ahead of the marauders when they had learned how to do this. After only one year he had managed the complete transformation, the only thing that would make it go faster was practice.

At first the identity of his form had been something of a mystery, but Moony had pulled through and after a few days of research they had a name. Apparently he was a Maltese, or Blue Tiger. Harry had wanted to strangle someone when he learned that he had once again gone and done something no one had managed since Merlin.

The great tigers, although known to muggles, were in fact magical. Looking to a muggle like a blue-gray tiger with darker gray stripes, but they didn't quite look the same to those with magic. The dark gray wings for one thing weren't visible to them, but otherwise they did in general look like a tiger, but with long pointed ears, and deep blue-gray fur with smoky gray strips.

On his face and chest however, the markings were far from normal looking, and looked more like swirling tribal tattoos than anything else.

Snorting at the memory of Sirius's rather garbled letter on the subject he focused on changing his hand back. Little did Harry know, but the notice-me-not charm on the book hidden in his trunk had chosen that moment to fail. Though the book itself would remain undiscovered until the next day.

X X X

**July 2**

The fading sunlight glinted off the window, throwing the cracked sill into sharp relief as Harry contemplated his life, and so far nothing he remembered could give him a sufficient reason to turn away from the course that had presented itself to him. He looked down at the book laying open on the bed before him. Page 217.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed. Did he really want to do it? Did he really want to throw it all away? Somehow he doubted he would ever be able to come home again if he did this, but would there be a home to come back to if he didn't? Looking back down at the pages he read the passage once more.

_Snow Point Academy of Magic_

_Snow Point Academy is located on an island somewhere in the Drake passage, between Antarctica and South America. The rough seas and weather aid the magics of the island in hiding its presence. It is shaped roughly like an elongated diamond with the points facing east and west. Snow Point Academy was founded roughly 800 years ago in 1200AD by a Scottish witch named Endellion. Endellion left her home land of Scotland and founded the remote school after having a vision of the future and deciding such a school was necessary. Snow Point Academy is different from other schools in that it accepts no one under the age of 15 and all magical beings regardless of species are welcome._

_Most humans are however hesitant to send their children to Snow Point due to its cut throat culture. A culture which has never failed to turn out the best and brightest magicians no matter their species, as well as kill at least one third of students before the five year curriculum is over._

_Snow Point is also known to not differentiate between, what is in modern times, considered light and dark magic, including classes such as Necromancy and Elemental Magic, both of which have been outlawed for over 500 years in Europe. Even then one cannot simply enroll in Snow Point._

_All prospective students arrive at Ushuaia, Argentina - the southern most city in the world - on September 10th, it is here they will receive a compass that will always point to the school. Their task is to make it to the school alive in two days. A journey thought to be some 300 miles through mountains and across the ocean. These distances can however only be speculated on as the exact location of the school is unknown._

_Due to the limited information about the trial to reach Snow Point little is known about what happens when one reaches the school,and what happens when you fail, but it is know from one unsubstantiated report that if at the end of two days a prospective student has failed to reach the island the compass will vanish leaving them to attempt a return trip on their own._

_Few have survived to try a second time._

Not for the first time Harry wondered how this book had found its way into his trunk. He may not have believed in Destiny, but he believed in coincidences even less. Because this was his answer, the spell Voldemort had used to bring himself back to life had to be some kind of necromancy, and something else had kept the bastard alive that night he had nearly been destroyed.

What better way to learn how to put the monster down for good then necromancy? Even if that didn't work he could always ask the teacher for advice on making sure people you killed stayed dead.

But he had to wonder, was this one of Dumbledore's plots? No, he decided, the old fool would never let him learn something as 'dark' as necromancy, let alone go so far from his control. This was someone else, but in the end who had left the book didn't really matter, this was his chance and he was going to take it.

X X X

**July 4th**

British wizards, Harry decided were over rated, _vastly overrated._ If Dumbledore had honestly thought that his new guards would escape his notice then the old man really was going senile. Apparently the he had forgotten Harry had an invisibility cloak, and absolutely no hesitation in using it.

Pocketing his wand he glanced out the window, picking out the foot prints in the grass where his watcher stood. With a smirk he stepped out of immediate view before throwing the shimmering cloak over his shoulders and heading downstairs. He paused for a moment glancing into the living room at Dudley, sitting in front of the TV. The whale was bigger than ever, taking up nearly the entire couch on his own.

With a disgusted shake of his head he continued on, heading for the back door. Although the invisibility cloak was good and all, the watcher would still see the door being opened by nothing. So he would be taking the back door and sneaking into the neighboring yard before heading out to the street and down the road to summon the Night Bus.

Harry glanced back down the sidewalk glad to note that as far as he could tell his watcher hadn't caught on. Ducking into the bushes he pulled the cloak off and stuffed it into his backpack before stepping up to the edge of the road and holding out his wand. With a tremendous bang the violet triple-decker form of the Night Bus all but exploded into view. Harry winced and took a step back as the bus almost took his nose off, it had appeared far too close to the curb in Harry's opinion.

"'Ello! Welcome to da the nigh' bus! Transport for da stranded Witch er Wizard!" the bus driver yelled. Harry blinked, surprised to see that both the driver and his assistant were different than last year.

Oh well, better for him. Hopefully with his scar covered up, his hair temporary tamed with some hair gel, and contacts he would be unrecognizable enough. Shoving a handful of sickles at the man he simply snapped.

"Diagon Ally." The less he said the better his chances of going unremarked upon were. One white knuckle ride later and Harry was staggering into the leaky cauldron with a grimace on his face. Ignoring the curious looks of those in the bar he took a moment to regain his balance before he made his way to the back.

He grinned with relief when no clamor of excited talking erupted behind him, it would seem his disguise was working. Who would have thought smoothing down his hair and no glasses would make such an obvious difference. Even with the minor differences someone would look for his scar when they saw him, and not seeing it they would assume that he just looked a bit like Harry Potter, but wasn't the real thing.

Tapping out the sequence on the bricks he watched the entrance unfold in front of him, a faint smile of childish glee on his face. _'That never gets old',_ he thought happily, taking in the alley and noting that there weren't nearly as many people as normal. Then again, it wasn't a bad idea in theory to take himself here when the alley was its busiest, for a normal person it would prevent him from being noticed as easily. For him the sea of red hair that normally accompanied him was a dead give away.

Heading into the alley Harry couldn't help but look around like a green firsty, no matter how often he came here, it never lost its wonder for him. Forcing himself to focus he told himself that there was no point in looking, he needed money first.

Gringotts was just as massive and overbearing as usual, the goblin guards scowling at him from the doors. He just nodded to them before moving on. Moving past as he did he missed the faint looks of surprise that flashed across the goblins faces.

Heading for a teller Harry handed over his key, the goblin took it wordlessly before frowning sharply, and giving him a vicious look. Harry looked at him in honest confusion, he knew goblins didn't like wizards, but that seemed to be a bit much.

Harry's eye narrowed, studying the key in the goblins hand for a moment, before cursing. He had an idea of what the problem was now. "Let me guess," he drawled, "Dumbledore gave me a fake key?" The goblin just barred his teeth in an evil grin. "Of course..." Harry muttered, annoyed as the teller signaled the guards. "Is there a way to prove I am indeed Harry Potter, and not some idiotic thief, that will not permanently injure or kill me?" The goblin raised an eyebrow, smirking.

"Yes, although failing the test will result in a most painful and gruesome death, do you still wish to take it?" The goblin looked like he was seriously hoping Harry would. Nothing like listening to stupid wizards scream in agony first thing in the morning Harry thought wryly.

"Yes, yes I would. What is required?" he asked, not breaking eye contact or letting his own smirk leave his face. The goblin eyed him speculatively for a moment before chuckling, Harry resisting the urge to wince at the sound.

"Follow me." He answered, grinning and signaling the guards once more. Harry almost laughed at the looks of disappointment on their faces as he followed the teller out of the main lobby and down a hallway. The gold lined halls were so massive you could have walked an elephant though them with no trouble.

A few minutes later they arrived at a large iron door, the goblin tapped it and loud ku-thunks echoed down the hall as the locks disengaged. With a tug the goblin hauled the door open and stepped aside gesturing for him to enter, he eyed the door for a moment before looking at the goblin.

"I do get to take the test, yeah? You're not just going to lock me in there until I starve or something are you?" The goblin actually snorted at the question.

"Of course not. Watching you fail the test will be much more amusing." At the answer Harry simply nodded.

"True enough," He agreed, stepping forward and entering the stone room, the goblin closing the door behind them. In the center of the room was a table with a stone spike, around a foot tall, in the middle. Tiny runes covered every inch of the spike. Harry eyed it wearily at the goblin walked up and tapped several runes.

"You need to prick the palm of your hand on the spike enough to draw blood, if you are indeed Harry Potter it will glow. If you are not it will glow, then begin slowly dissolving your flesh and turning your blood to acid." Harry eyed the spike for a moment before shrugging and stepping forward, it wasn't like blood or pain bothered him any.

The top of the spike was wickedly sharp and it didn't take much force to cut his hand on it, and he didn't bother trying to pull it away once he did so. He doubted he could budge it half a millimeter. A long moment passed, the goblin eagerly awaiting his painful demise, than the spike started to glow before going dark. Harry gave his hand an experimental tug and it came away easily.

"So, I'm not dead. Can we get to canceling the key that has apparently been stolen and get a new one made?" He asked politely. The goblin scowled, grumbling and waving at him dismissively.

"Yes yes! Follow me!" he spat. Harry followed, a faint smile on his face as he inspected the small gouge in his hand.

X X X

Walking out of the bank an hour later Harry had to sigh at the goblins never ending irritation with humans, but couldn't find it in himself to be angry at them. With the amount of shit they took from humans they had every right to be assholes. But he had his new key and a big bag of galleons.

Heading down the steps he made his way to the trunk shop, the scent of cedar and leather hitting him with an almost physical blow as he stepped inside. The unpolished wood floor squeaking under his shoes he glanced around, taking in the slightly dim interior and the vast collection of trunks on display. "Hello?" he called, his voice echoing into the back rooms. A loud thunk and a curse made him wince, and hope that whomever he had startled was alright.

"JUST A MOMENT!" the owner yelled, a few more thunks and curses later and a ruffled looking middle aged man appeared at the back door. "Ah yes! My apologies about the wait! My name is Theo Corwind. What can I help you with today?" he asked excitedly.

"Well, I'm planning on doing a lot of traveling soon and I once saw a trunk with multiple expanded compartments, and was wondering if you had something similar?" Harry asked. Theo frowned thoughtfully.

"Can you describe the compartments? How big were they and how many?"

"Um well there were seven as far as I know, and all but one seemed to be about room sized." The man stared at him shocked.

"Truly? It must have been an amazing piece of workmanship to hold six expanded compartments! I've only ever managed two before, I get to three and the whole thing decides to implode on me. Never quite figured out what the problem was. Harry nodded, throwing out his initial idea to get something like Moody's trunk.

"But you can do two compartments like that? How many normal sized one as well or would it just be the two?"

"No no! I can add up to 8 normal sized compartments along with the 2 room size, admittedly small rooms. Their about 10 square feet. Nothing grand but they certainly give you enough room for a small portable library, but don't think to try and live in them! I'v never been able to figure out air circulation to an expanded dimension, you would just suffocate.

"So books, clothes, things like that only. If you were willing to have only 4 trunk sized compartments and the two room sized ones however, I can put all sorts of secret compartments in it!" The man rapidly rattled off, Harry blinked checking another one of his idea's off, but the secret compartments sounded good.

"Okay, approximately how much would a custom trunk with 4 regular compartments, 2 rooms, and as many secrets compartments as can be reasonably added, cost?" Harry asked. Theo hummed to himself, looking speculative for a long moment before answering.

"Well that all depends on both the wood and the spell work you want. At the bare minimum you'd be looking at around 50 Galleons, and that's oak with all your basic anti-fire and water wards and regular key locks. For around 150 galleons I can use Cedar for all the interiors along with Iron wood for the frame, and all your basic spells along with a hodgepodge of anti theft charms and password encrypted locks." He finished happily. Harry blinked, that wasn't too bad actually.

"I'll take that second one, but can you add some decorations to it?" The man blinked apparently shocked that he was going to spend so much money.

"Um, er, yes! Of course! Inlays are quite simple when you have magic to help, but you still need to be able to draw." He added with a grin. Harry smiled, nodding.

"Right, can you do something with a snowy owl on the lid?" he asked, the man looked thoughtful then nodded.

"Yes, an owl shouldn't be difficult, a snowy you said?" He asked, whipping a note book out from seemingly nowhere and beginning to scribble. " And you want everything I mentioned before? The iron wood with cedar and all the spell work with the password locks yes?" At Harry's nod he added more frantic scribblings. "Its going to take about two weeks to make this, can you come back around the 18th?"

"Works for me," Harry agreed, the man nodded happily as Harry turned to leave.

"Oh, one more thing!" Harry made to turn back around when the man conked him on the head with his wand, making him feel like he'd just had water dumped on him. "Most wizards may be idiots but don't assume things, Mister Potter. I won't tattle on you, but do try a better disguise next time? Although I admit when I couldn't spot your scar I almost bought it." Harry winced as the man grinned and conjured a mirror, showing him that his once black hair was now a sandy brown. "The spell will wear off in about two hours." Harry sighed.

"Was it really that bad?" He asked ruefully. Theo laughed.

"Not so much as you'd think, unfortunately it is the problem people who would see through it Mr. Potter. Please be more careful in the future." Harry rolled his eyes, exasperated.

"Thanks, two weeks then?" The man nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes that should do it! And Mister Potter? I'd better not be able to recognize you when you come back! A word of advice on that. Although the magic detectors can pick up spells, potions are another matter entirely. Pick up a basic potions book and look up some color changing potions before you head home." Harry grumbled good naturally and darted out of the shop before he could be heckled anymore.

Theo watched the younger wizard until he had disappeared into Flourish and Blots. Heading back into his work room he surveyed the mass of woods and carving tools before grinning. Oh yes, he was going to have _fun_ with this one.

X X X


	2. Someone Else's Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> annnnd chapter 2!

**Chapter 2: Someone Else's Life**

**July 18th**

Harry studied himself in the mirror approvingly, taking in his newly dark brown hair and stormy gray eyes, not too shabby he thought. Add to that the black jeans and dark gray t-shirt he had bought about a week after returning from Diagon Alley, and he didn't look half bad with his black school cloak.

Putting his wand in his pocket he looked over at his desk, making sure that he had put his cauldron and all his ingredients away. It wouldn't do to have the Dursleys walk in and see things like that, they would throw a fit.

Two days into brewing all the color changing potions he'd had an epiphany. Because he couldn't use magic to protect himself he could use potions and such instead. Currently he had three extra potions in his pockets. One was a potion that would catch fire upon exposure to air and had to be bottled within five minutes of brewing to prevent the reaction. When thrown the bottles would break and anything covered in the liquid would catch fire.

Nothing a full grown wizard couldn't deal with, but something that would hopefully buy him time to disappear if he was attacked. Another created a dense smoke cloud and the last was a rather nasty acid. All had their uses, but he hoped he wouldn't be needing them. Knowing the Ministry he would be charged with assault if he attacked a death eater.

Hedwig clacked her beak curiously at his new look, causing him to grin over at her. "Well, What do you think?" he asked? She gave him a rather critical look before spreading her wings and gliding over to his shoulder to preen his hair. "I'm glad you approve. Hopefully I won't have to use these potions too often, they make my eyes itch."

Moving away from the mirror he studied the yard below, picking out the foot prints in the grass after only a few moments. It was laughable how easy it was for him to spot them, looking for foot prints in grass was a hell of a lot easier than spotting a tiny moving target.

Hedwig clacked her beak, looking at the same spot with irritation almost radiating off her. Ruffling her feathers she glided from his shoulder back to her perch. Smiling Harry tossed his cloak over his shoulders, flipping up the hood and buttoning the front of the cloak closed, hiding him from view.

Heading out the door Harry completely ignored Dudley, who seemed to have not moved since the last time he had left the house, and once more exited though the back and slipped across the neighbors yard. Twenty minutes later found a very dizzy teenaged wizard staggering off a certain bus and leaning heavily against the wall of the leaky cauldron.

"I really need to learn to apparate..." he muttered with a groan. Pulling himself up straight he stood still for a moment and when the scenery stayed put deemed himself recovered enough to enter the pub.

Glancing around as he headed to the back he almost had a heart attack when he spotted Hagrid having what looked to be lunch. All but holding his breath he resisted the urge to run to the entrance of the alley instead of walking calmly as though nothing was wrong.

Hurriedly tapping out the sequence on the brick wall he made a rapid beeline for the trunk shop. He stopped, taking a deep breath before entering the shop, the smell of cedar and leather once more permeating his nose. "Hello?" He called. Just like last time a crash echoed from the back room along with a curse. Theo's reappearance was much quicker this time however, as he popped out the back door only a moment later.

"Oh! Hello! What can I do for you today, Sir?" he asked happily. Harry looked at him amused for a long moment before answering.

"So does this disguise meet your standards, Theo?" He asked with a grin. The man blinked and stared at him for a moment before laughing.

"Oh very good! Not bad at all Mr. Potter! Not bad at all!" Harry smiled wryly.

"So how is my trunk coming?" he asked. Theo gave him an almost frightening grin.

"I finished it last night! Why don't you take a look?" He gestured to the back room, still grinning happily. Harry found the man's enthusiasm to be infectious as he headed to the back and entered the workshop. He spotted the trunk immediately; the front was facing the door as it sat on the back work bench.

The wood had been polished to a nearly iridescent black sheen, the dark grain barely visible, while the fittings on the corners and edges looked to be silver. On the front two inlayed white feathers framed the silver lock, which was shaped like an owls head, the key hole in the open beak.

Behind him Theo was grinning gleefully. There was nothing quite so gratifying after a hard job, as complete awe. Walking forward he picked up the trunk and set it on a knee high table, so he could show his customer all the cool tricks he had added, as well as show him the design on the top. It was probably the best piece he had ever done.

Harry couldn't believe the amount of detail that had been put into the top design. A snowy owl, hung wings outstretched across the lid, talons held forward — as though it was about to fly off of the trunk and attack. Every feather had been carefully etched in with tiny chips of black added in for the spots and bars, golden eyes made of pieces of tigers eye gleamed.

Harry blinked, a sudden thought occurring to him as he stared in awe. The design was perfect, almost to perfect. Theo chuckled seeing the look.

"I see you noticed? You would be surprised how easy it is to get a picture of your owl, Mr. Potter. I kept the design as close as possible."

"This... I can't even..." Harry trailed off, unable to put into words how incredible the work was. Theo just grinned, beyond pleased before speaking in a slightly sing song voice.

"And to think! We haven't even gotten to the cool stuff yet!" Harry stared at him dumbstruck. "I see I have your attention?" Harry nodded slowly, still in shock. "Right then, don't worry about remembering where all the secret compartments are, I wrote you a manual," he said, pointing to a muggle binder on the desk, about an inch of paper visible inside. Harry gave him an incredulous look.

"Just how many did you add?" He asked faintly. Theo laughed.

"Thirty-two total, Mr. Potter. Some are on the outside, others are on the inside. Ill show you most of them right now, all right?"

And so began the long tour of all the secret compartments. Some were small, only the size of a deck of cards, others could have held things the size of a shoe box and even a longer one that could have easily held his broom. As Theo had said they were peppered all around the trunk, on all sides, in the lid, in the compartments. One even had to be triggered from hidden switches in three different compartments before the catch would release.

To say Harry was in awe would be an understatement, and Theo was having a ball showing him everything, acting like a stage magician with a new trick every time he moved on to a new compartment or feature of the trunk.

Two hours later Theo finally wound down, although still grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Well, Mr. Potter. Does it meet you standards?" he asked, Harry rolled his eyes and laughing.

"I could have never imagined something like this! Its fantastic!"

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. Now last but not least the price," He said amused. Harry blinked, having almost forgotten he was actually buying the master piece in front of him. Theo held up a hand to stall any questions, looking serious for the first time. "I ask that you not argue about the price Mr. Potter one way or another that's how much you're paying, got it?" Harry nodded slowly a little startled by the sudden change in character.

"So...how much then?" he asked warily, Theo smirking.

"80 galleons, Mr. Potter. Material cost only. Consider it my thank you for giving us fifteen years of peace and my investment in making sure you have only the best to help you on your way." He smiled faintly. "I just hope you come back eventually Mr. Potter. We're going to need you more than ever in the next few years." Harry stared in numb shock at the man.

"I...I... Thank you, Theo... I hadn't thought anyone believed me after the third task..." He finally said, Theo grinning wryly.

"Yes, well, Mr. Potter, I did manage to get tickets to the final task. It was one of those cousins, brothers, uncle has this friend kinda situations. I saw you when you came back, the look on your face... Well as far as I'm concerned there's no way you were lying."

"...Thank you, Theo..." Harry said after a long moment. "And I will be coming back. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, but I'm hopping to learn something that will let me make sure that bastard STAYS dead this time. It might take a while, I honestly have no idea." Theo nodded.

"All right then Mr. Potter, I wish you good luck. Now lets get you out of here, I should think you have more to do today, yes?"

X X X

Twenty minutes later Harry left the trunk shop, the shrunken trunk currently the size of a shoebox. All the spells on it apparently made it impossible to shrink further, so he carried it in a black backpack Theo had acquired with that in mind.

Making a beeline for Flourish and Blotts Harry picked up a basket by the door and set to work. An hour later and he had 26 books on varying subjects, and several rolls of parchment along with new quills and ink. He would need more, but he planned to make several more trips to the alley before he made a run for it.

Handing 40 galleons over the clerk was kind enough to shrink his bags so he could put them in his back pack before he headed for the Apothecary. Another whirlwind and he was another 53 galleons poorer, but now possessed a wide range of new ingredients for the potions he had been reading about all month.

Pausing outside the Apothecary Harry stared grimly at his next target, and braced himself. Stalking determinedly across the alley he entered the robe shop.

He was barely through the door when Madam Malkin all but appeared at his side, making him flinch. She studied him for a long moment looking him up and down. "So, what will you be needing lad?" she asked as Harry resisted the urge to run.

"Er... I need a new wardrobe," he answered hesitantly, Malkin's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Everything?" she asked. He nodded.

"Er... I'd assume so, I grew up with muggles so I'm not sure what 'everything' amounts to," he answered, a thoughtful look crossed her face at this before she nodded sharply.

"All right then, let's see what we can do for you, shall we?" A faint smirk on her face made Harry want to whimper.

Four hours later Harry all but ran from the shop, having barely waited long enough for Malkin to shrink his bags before escaping.

X X X

**July 22**

Harry stood over his cauldron, sweat beading on his forehead as he stirred his most recent potion. By some miracle he hadn't blown anything up yet. Apparently not having Snape hovering over him, or Slytherins trying to sabotage him, made this _much_ easier. Easy being relative of course, the potion he was attempting was far more difficult than anything else he had tried before.

Clear Sight was a vision correcting potion that took three days to brew, but only needed fairly common ingredients. Why he had never been given this before he didn't understand. The bit he was on right now was tricky, but doable, requiring precisely 5 clockwise stirs and one counter clockwise stir while adding a single beetle eye halfway through each one. Relived, he pulled the stirring rod out and watched the potion intently.

It was supposed to turn light green for about 5 seconds then light blue. If it was green for more than seven seconds then the potion was bad and would make him go blind if he drank it. The potion simmered for a moment before turning a light pastel green and harry started counting. _One...two...three...four...five...si-_ the potion turned sky blue. Harry wanted to cheer. Grinning ear to ear he carefully ladled out a dose of Clear Sight, and went to sit down on his rickety bed.

Taking a deep breath he downed the potion and waited, eyes closed. The book said that it would make you eyes feel like they were burning for about a minute depending on how bad your eyesight was, but Harry figured he could handle it. If he could withstand the Cruciatus Curse then he could stand the potion.

A slight itch began but he resisted the urge to rub his eyes. The book had been clear, blinking was all right but no touching. The itch quickly built into a sharp burning, his eyes watered a bit but it really wasn't that bad. At the minute and a half mark the pain ebbed away. He waited a few more seconds before opening his eyes.

Harry blinked and blinked again in shock as he looked out the window across from him, he could actually see the leaves on the tree next door! Everything was in perfect focus now. Hedwig gave a concerned hoot, making him blink and grin at her.

"Awesome."


	3. My Way

**Chapter 3: My Way**

**August 28th**

Harry waited calmly for his guards to arrive. Supposedly the Dursleys had won an award for 'best kept lawn' but he had recognized the hand writing as Remus's - it was the end of August so it was reasonable for them to come pick him up. In light of that he had closed up all his potions equipment the moment he had seen the letter and started packing all the generic stuff in his old trunk while squirreling his new goodies away in his new trunk, which was in its backpack in the old trunk under everything else.

Hedwig was sitting on the windowsill, glaring menacingly out at the dark, she liked doing that lately. She would stare straight at whoever was on guard, no doubt freaking the poor people out. He thought it was funny and encouraged her to have fun with them.

A crack echoed down stairs and Harry smiled, imaging Petunia's fit at the broken dishes. Sighing he rolled out of bed and headed out the door. He paused, wand drawn, just around the corner from the stairs listening. He heard a thud and a soft curse and frowned.

"Damn it Tonks! Watch were your going!" A voiced growled softly, Harry's eyes narrowed. Was that...Moody? He shifted, reaching into a pocket and feeling the vials there. Each kind had a different number of bands of tape wrapped around them, he picked the one with three. Holding it carefully, it wouldn't do to drop it if this was legitimate, he leaned around the corner ready to duck and hurl the potion if anyone downstairs so much a breathed funny.

"Whose there?" he barked, earning several thuds and startled curses from the people in the hall.

"Oh for God's sake!" hissed another familiar voice as light bloomed downstairs, reviling an annoyed looking Remus, his wand emitting a soft white light. The other dozen people in the hall all glared at the werewolf. Remus just rolled his eyes, unaffected by their scowling.

"Hello Remus," he drawled, eying the others. Remus smiled wryly.

"Good to see you, Cub. Been holding up?" He asked. Harry merely raised an eyebrow.

"I'm fine. Who are all your friends?" He asked, shifting his grip on the vial, not missing the fact that Moody's fake eye was looking strait at his hand through the wall.

"Sorry Harry, this is the order of the Phoenix, well part of it at any rate." He amended. "Dumbledore sent us to pick you up and take you to a safe house for the rest of the summer." Harry stared at him for a long moment after he explained

"And I would believe this...why exactly? Whats to say your not just a bunch of polyjuiced Death Eaters?" He deadpanned, Moody giving a harsh bark of laughter.

"Finally! A lad with some common sense! Out of curiosity what is that potion your waitin' to throw at us?" He asked, the others in the group tensed, looking worried. Harry snorted, unimpressed at the attempt to trip him up.

"Well, if you can prove you are who you say you are I'll be happy to tell you, otherwise you'll be finding out the slightly more direct way." Moody grinned happily, a truly terrifying expression of the ancient Aurors face.

"Good lad! Now Remus?" He asked sharply. Remus nodded.

"What did you use to kill the basilisk?" He asked. Harry eyed him for a moment before responding.

"The sword of Gryffindor, and Fawkes helped too. How did I rescue Padfoot?" He countered.

"Good timing and creative use of a hippogriff." Harry snorted, relaxing a bit.

"Well that's one way to put it," He responded, stepping out from behind the wall, not letting himself really relax until a few moments with no attack went by.

"Ooh, he looks just like I thought he would," Said a witch in the hall, she looked the youngest there; she had a pale heart-shaped face, dark twinkling eyes, and short spiky hair that was a violent shade of violet. "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus," Said a bald black wizard standing furthest back - he had a deep, slow voice and wore a single gold hoop in his ear - "He looks exactly like James."

"Except the eyes," Said a wheezy-voiced, silver-haired wizard at the back. "Lily's eyes." Harry resisted the urge to curse them, his safety was being trusted to a bunch of fangirls, wasn't it?

"So what now?" He asked tartly. Remus snickered softly, guessing the source of Harry's irritation.

"Now we get you to headquarters without getting killed," He explained.

"And we will be doing that how exactly?"

"Brooms." Was the violet haired witches excited response. Harry stared at her incredulously.

"Brooms?" He echoed.

"Yeah. Floos being watched, and apparition and portkeys can be tracked. Flying is the only way to go." Moody growled.

"And how exactly is flying out in the open across the country side a better idea? Why can't we just barrow Fawkes?" He asked flatly. Moody blinked while everyone else sans Remus looked shocked.

"Hadn't though of that," Moody finally muttered. "TONKS!" He barked turning to look at the violet haired witch. "Head back to headquarters and ask Albus if we can barrow Fawkes instead of flying Potter there." The witch, Tonks apparently, nodded rapidly and darted out the door. A few moments later the sharp crack of apparition heralded Tonks departure.

"Right, I'm going to go get my trunk." Harry said after a moment of awkward silence, Remus quickly volunteering to help.

"So how have you really been?" The old werewolf asked. Once they had entered the bedroom Harry shot him a smirk.

"Oh this and that. You really think I've been sitting on my ass all summer, Remus?" He asked, Remus chuckling.

"Of course not, but Harry, I have to say I've seen that grin before. Your mother always had it when she was about to do something particularly devious." Remus pointed out, a particularly ominous tone in his voice. Harry just stared him down without turning a hair.

"I have no idea what your talking about," He responded blandly. Remus snorted, unimpressed.

"Your a few decades to young to pull that on me cub, try again."

"Oh come on Remus, let me have my fun. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing Dumbledore pulling his hair out in frustration when the fun starts." He answered with a grin. Remus eyed him wearily.

"Must be a doozy, Harry, just what have you got planned?"

"You'll see." Remus was prevented from arguing any further at the sound of Fawkes' singing down stairs.

"Well there's your ride I suppose." Remus said, sending him a look that promised a more thorough interrogation later.

X X X

Harry decided upon arrival, in a dark neighborhood after being consumed in a blaze of fire, that traveling by Phoenix was officially his favorite form of magical transport, being the only one that didn't send him to his ass on landing. Within a few moments a dozen sharp pops sounded and the rest of his guard arrived. Moody flicked his wand in several complicated motions, no doubt casting some kind of detection spells, whatever he found met his approval however.

Stalking over to Harry, who still had Fawkes perched on his shoulder, he roughly held out a piece of paper. "Quick, read it and concentrate on what it says." he growled. Harry took the paper, a bit confused, but obligingly read what it said.

_The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix_

_May be found at number 12 Grimmauld Place._

"Um...ok?" He asked uncertainly. The paper was abruptly snatched out his hands and burned.

"Concentrate on what you read boy! Look there!" The old Auror snapped, pointing at the spot between numbers 11 and 13. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when a building seemed to sprout from the ground between one place and the next. "Don't dawdle! We could be seen any minute! Inside now!" Harry glared before walking quickly up to the porch, Tonks opening the door with a grin.

"I see you made it in one piece!" she said brightly as Fawks launched himself off Harrys shoulder and flew inside. Moody growled and all but pushed Harry through the door, forcing Tonks to retreat or get knocked over.

"Hello Pup." Harry just about broke his neck he wiped it around so fast, his eyes locking onto the form of Sirius in an instant. A moment later he tackled his godfather in a hug knocking them both to the floor. Sirius laughed and hugged him back.

"Alright you lot, get up, its time for the meeting." Remus called with a chuckle as he finally arrived, Harry's trunk in hand. Harry sighed but got up, giving Sirius a hand as well.

"What meeting?" He asked. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Order of the Phoenix stuff. I'd let you come but unfortunately kids have been banned."

"Of course they have," He agreed drily, earning a smirk from Sirius.

"Hey mate!" Harry looked up and tried not to scowl when he saw Ron grinning down at him from the second floor landing.

"Hello Harry." Hermione added, appearing as well.

"Hello Mione," He answered, smiling

"Hey! What about me mate!" Ron called, annoyed at being ignored.

"Fuck off Ron." Was Harry's only response, he hadn't forgotten Ron's betrayal during the tournament and he wasn't about to let the jealous little bastard be his friend again anytime soon. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Come on Harry, we need to talk." Harry nodded and took his feather light trunk from Remus before darting up the stairs past Ron, who was steadily turning purple. Downstairs the others headed into the kitchen for their super secret meeting.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to send you any letters Harry. I did try but Dumbledore had all the bases covered," she said once the door was closed. Harry smiled wryly.

"Its alright, I had a busy summer so I wasn't to bored." Hermione stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"How? They were guarding you night and day. How could you have gotten out of the house?" she asked. He smirked.

"This is me were talking about Hermione, you honestly think I couldn't sneak out if I wanted to?" He asked.

"That's the point! I was going to tell you about them, but you couldn't have known they were there already!" She argued

"They need better guards then because I knew they were there within a week." Hermione stared at him for a long moment before nodding.

"They are a bit idiotic, aren't they?" she agreed, making Harry laugh.

"Yeah, just a bit. As it is Dumbledore apparently forgot his guards aren't the only ones with an invisibility cloak, or the fact that the house has a back door." Hermione snickered.

"So where did you go?" She asked amused. Harry smirked.

"Diagon Alley. I had some things I needed to get."

"What are you up to Harry?" She demanded, grinning Harry gave her an innocent look.

"What are you talking about Hermione? I just wanted something new to read!" He argued. Hermione gave him a flat look. Harry sighed, turning serious.

"Promise not to tell anyone?" He asked. She frowned sharply at him.

"Of course not!" She snapped, outraged that he honestly thought he needed to ask her something like that! Harry smiled faintly.

"Sorry Mione, but this is big," He answered, "I found something that may help me get rid of Voldemort, but I'm going to have to leave for a while to figure it out."

"Wait a second. Why not tell them then? If it'll get rid of Voldemort they may actually make themselves useful for once!" Harry just shook his head.

"No, they would never let me do this Hermione. Dumbledore for one would never let me go somewhere out of his control. You know how he is." He argued. Hermione closed her eyes for a moment before sighing and nodding.

"True, so whats the big plan?" Harry popped his trunk open and pulled out the book that had changed everything and held it out.

"Page 217." He said quietly. Hermione hesitated for a moment before flipping the book open and beginning to read the brief entry about Snow Point Academy. It only took her a minute, but she stayed frozen staring at the page for almost five minutes after she had finished. Finally she looked up and considered him for another long moment.

"I think I see where your going with this." She finally said.

"Where else would teach something like that? I figure he used some kind of necromancy to keep himself alive and to come back the rest of the way. If all else fails I can just ask the professor about making sure people you kill stay dead," He explained. "That and the place probably teaches a lot more powerful magic as well. I need something with a bit more kick then reducto if I'm going to survive now that he's back." Hermione grumbled, annoyed.

"I hate it when you actually make sense Harry," She muttered darkly.

"Whys that?" He asked, amused.

"Because you always get yourself into trouble!I happen to like having a brother! I don't want you getting yourself killed!" She snapped. Harry hugged her.

"I'll be fine Mione." She sighed.

"Idiot," she muttered darkly. Harry just laughed. "So when are you planning on leaving and how are you going to avoid the order until the 10th?" She asked, getting back down to business.

"I'll leave on the 1st, around 2am or so, and catch a flight across the pond then make my way south. I'll be more difficult to track if I take the normal way," he answered easily. Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, an exasperated look on her face.

"Harry?" She asked drily.

"Um..yes?"

"Do you even have tickets?" She asked sweetly. Harry balked at the look she was giving him.

"Er..." She sighed.

"That's what I thought." She deadpanned.

"I was going to get them at the airport!" He squeak defensively. She just shook her head.

"What would you do without me, Harry?"

"Fail to get out of the country?" He asked brightly. Hermione face palmed. "Er...right, how do I get tickets then?" He asked, she snorted.

"Your lucky I found out about how to do that when I went to France last year."

"So?"

"You have an ID, right? Give it to me and I'll have my dad plot it out for you and get all the tickets." He all but tackled her in a hug again.

"Thanks Hermione!" She pried him off, looking annoyed.

X X X

_Later that night_

Harry was awoken later by a muttered silencio and petrificus totalus, he didn't freak out though, he recognized Sirius's voice. Honestly he was surprised the marauder had waited this long to kidnap him for that interrogation that Remus had promised.

So he waited, amused, as he was levitated out of his bedroom and down the hall to a staircase behind a door. A minute later he was dropped to the floor next to Buckbeak. With an internal smirk he twisted his magic and snapped the weak spells easily.

"Hey! No fair Pup!" Sirius squawked, outraged.

"Right, what do you two want?" He asked, ignoring Sirius's whining.

"Well, you've got us wondering with your hinting earlier, and we want to know what you're cooking up that would get Albus's nickers in a twist." Harry smirked.

"You're just going to have to wait like everyone else." He told them. Sirius gave him a wounded look while Remus laughed.

"Are you sure Harry?" He asked, amused.

"Yup, your going to have to suffer, but don't worry to much I'll explain after the fact alright?" Sirius and Remus exchanged a look before nodding.

"Alright. Just don't doing anything your going to regret."

"No worries."

"Alright then, time for the real reason we brought you here." Sirius grinned wickedly. "Remus?" he asked. Remus nodded solemnly and looked at Harry.

"Harry James Potter, son of Messers Prongs. With the completion of your animagus transformation and the agreement of Messers Padfoot and Moony, it has been decided that you shall be inducted into the exalted Marauders. Are you Harry James Potter prepared to take the oath of the Marauders, and take up the solemn duty therein?" Remus finished. Harry stared at them in shock for a moment, not quite comprehending what they were asking for a moment. After a moment later a frightening grin appeared on his face.

"I, Harry James Potter, accept." Remus and Sirius grinned before turning serious once more.

"Then hold out your wand and repeat after me." He said, and Harry realized with a shock that this was no joke oath, this was a real magically binding oath, but that didn't bother him.

Holding out his wand he grinned. Remus nodded and began. "Do you Harry James Potter, hence forth to be know to the Marauders as Talyn, swear on your life and magic to bring mischief and chaos wherever you may go, and help those who would do the same, bring amusement in times of darkness and strife? Do you swear to uphold the honor of the Marauders and to continue the legacy of chaos when you find those who are worthy? And finally, do you swear to have fun no matter how dark the world becomes?" Remus pronounced solemnly.

"I do." Harry stated and both wands flared with light, a coil of glowing golden light wrapping around both his and Remus's arms before sinking into the flesh. Harry couldn't keep the grin off his face as Remus lowered his wand and grinned.

"Welcome to the Marauders, Messers Talyn," They both said.

"Now for the moment of truth Pup, what will your first act as a Marauder be?" Asked Sirius. Harry looked thoughtful and chuckled softly as he thought of what he already had in the works.

"I think we should consider my current undertaking to be my first act of chaos and discord guys, its certainly spectacular, if I can pull it off anyways." Harry answered with a grin, the two looked at him intrigued.

"I know you said its going to be good before Pup, but just how big is this going to be?" Asked Sirius. Harry just laughed.

"You'll see! I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."

"I don't think your going to get him to spill Padfoot, so you might as well stop asking already." Sirius pouted, making Remus roll his eyes. "Oh and Cub? One last thing before you head back to bed. Contrary to what everyone else thinks, the Marauder names aren't simple nicknames. Because its worked into the oath it truly is your name just as much as Harry is. That's why letters and things addressed to Moony and Padfoot can actually find us. If you wanted to you can even sign legal stuff as Talyn and its just as binding as if you put down Harry Potter."

Harry blinked, well, that certainly made things a lot easier. If he could legally go by Talyn then when he went to Snow Point no one would be able to just look at an enrollment list or something, not that he thought a place as secretive as Snow Point would ever let the ministry within a hundred miles of the school, let alone look at documentation.

"Nice." he agreed. They nodded.

"Right now, time for bed, Talyn."

"Hey!" He squawked, outraged as he was picked off the ground by a wordless spell from Moony and floated down the hall.

X X X

**August 30th**

As the days ticked down it took all of Harry's self control not to act like Moody, but only Hermione, Sirius, and Remus seemed to notice he was twitchier then normal. Hermione of course knew why and she was still waiting for word from her father. Hopefully he would get back to here sometime tonight, she needed to look over the route with Harry so he wouldn't get lost.

"Anything yet?" Harry asked, retreating to her room after lunch. She shook her head.

"Not yet. He'll get it Harry, don't worry. Planning a trip halfway across the planet takes a little research."

"I know but we're getting down to the wire here, I need to leave tomorrow night!"

"I know Harry, have you been working on that charm?" she asked. He nodded, exasperated but glad he could practice the charm none the less. The twins spying had revealed an interesting fact, as long as they were under the fidelius spell the underage magic detectors couldn't pick them up. Hermione had jumped on the loophole like a starving lion on a gazelle, and in the process saving him from another potential problem. Tracking spells. The charm he was learning would hopefully remove all tracking spells that might be on him.

A loud hoot distracted them a moment later as Hedwig winged into the room through the open window, a thick envelope in her claws. Harry all but snatched the letter out of the air when Hedwig dropped it on his head. "Great job girl!" he congratulated the tired owl. Hermione snagged the letter out of his hand and opened it up, pulling out several print outs and a note. Reading quickly she laughed.

"Your going to have to send dad a thank you note Harry, it looks like he pulled it off!" She picked up the print outs, looking them over carefully. "Alright it looks like your going to have to switch planes 5 times."

"Five?" Harry asked incredulously. She just shot him a look.

"They don't exactly have none stop flights from Heathrow to Ushuaia Argentina Harry. You have to hop around a bit. Be glad its only five, it could have been worse."

X X X

**August 31**

Harry waited until the ancient house had been silent for several hours before getting out of bed. He opened his trunk, pulling out the backpack that held the new trunk, now with books from the Black library as well. Harry had found some good spell books with Sirius's help to read at school, Sirius just didn't know that the school wasn't going to be Hogwarts, but that was alright he would learn in the morning.

Tossing his invisibility cloak over his shoulders he silenced his feet and crept out of the room, he didn't head out of the house immediately however, first he detoured to Hermione's room. The door had been left cracked to lessen noise, he had after all promised to say goodbye before he left. Creeping over to the bed he tapped Hermione on her shoulder, her eyes snapped open and he flipped the cloak over his shoulder so she could see him. "Well I'm off then. See ya?" he grinned as she hugged him.

"Good luck." she agreed with a smile. " I expect you to use that journal I got you, those things cost a lot."

"I will. I'll try to talk to you everyday, at least until I get there, but I don't know if those will work through the wards on this place."

"Excuses, excuses," she deadpanned, "Now get! You have four hours to get to the airport and catch your flight!" Harry nodded and quickly left the room, sneaking down the stairs and out the door. It wouldn't be until nearly 10:30 the next day that anyone realized Harry was gone, but by then he was already 5 hours away across the Atlantic

X X X

 


	4. Firework

**Chapter 4: Firework**

**September 1st - 3AM**

Moonlight glittered off the ocean below as the plane powered on to New York. Harry knew he should have been sleeping, but he had never seen the ocean before. He found even in the dark that he couldn't tear his eyes away from the endless black that stretched out below.

No doubt in a few hours the Order would be scrambling to find him, someone might even be smart enough to check the airports. Officially though Harry Potter had never gotten on a plane at Heathrow. His boarding pass and the ID card Hermione had transfigured for him at Grimmlaud (using his original for a template) both proclaimed him to be Talyn Ashton. He hadn't even bothered to change his appearance much. He wore jeans and a long sleeved black shirt under a dark gray wind breaker.

His hair had been grown out about a foot in a strand of trees outside of the airport, and subsequently thrown into a pony tail. Without his glasses and with the long hair he looked startlingly different. Hedwig hooted softly in the seat next to him, causing him to smile at her.

When Hagrid had first bought her he had been a bit startled at the paperwork that came with her, but it was meant for people who lived around muggles so they wouldn't get fined for having an owl without a permit. One of the papers was everything he needed to take her on the plane with him, the only down side was that she needed her own seat. With the sheer amount of money he had however that was no issue.

That and he had almost completely emptied his trust vault into the second room in his trunk the day before the Order picked him up, so money was not going to be a problem...for him anyways. Dumbles was going to get a nasty surprise when he tried to make a withdrawal.

X X X

**September 1st – 9AM**

Hermione double checked her trunk a faint smirk on her face, wondering just when the fireworks were going to start. She couldn't wait. Normally she hated chaos, but today she would make an exception since there was nothing like well deserved justice. Wiping the smirk off her face she dragged her trunk down the stairs, leaving it by the front door with Ron's. Heading into the kitchen she squeezed herself in between Ginny and Tonks and helped herself to bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Ron dear would you go wake Harry up? The poor boy must have stayed up all night reading again," Mrs. Weasley called to Ron.

"Whatever," he answered, grabbing two pieces of toast to munch on while he walked. Five minutes later he was back. He plopped back down in his spot without a word and dug back into his mountain of eggs and pancakes.

"Did you wake Harry up?" Mrs. Weasley asked brightly. Ron shrugged and tried to say something around a mouthful of pancake. "Don't talk with your mouth full Ronald!" she snapped. Ron blinked at her and swallowed.

"I said he wasn't in bed." Ron repeated. Miss Weasley frowned before smiling once more.

"He's probably just in the shower, he'll be down soon," she said before turning back to the oven. Hermione tried not to smile as she helped herself to more eggs.

**9:20 AM**

"Tonks could you go find Harry please?" Remus asked. Tonks, who had been using the hall mirror to pick a new hair color, jumped in surprise.

"Um...sure!" she agreed and darted upstairs to track down the errant boy-who-lived. Hermione, who had been listening, snickered internally not showing any of her mirth on her face. Damn they were slow on the uptake, but Remus appeared to be catching on that something was up at least.

Shaking her head she pulled a book out of her backpack and sat down in the kitchen to read. A small notebook soon joined the transfiguration book on the table, but only three words were scribbled in it before it went back in the bag again.

_'Here we go.'_

On a plane halfway across the Atlantic Talyn felt the journal in his pocket vibrate. Pulling it out he read what it said and smiled wickedly.

**9:35 AM**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOT IN THE HOUSE?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked, making everyone in Grimlaud freeze. Tonks tried not to cringe at the screaming.

"I don't know! I can't find him anywhere!" she explained hurriedly. Mrs. Weasley stared at her, breathing hard. Within moments everyone still in the house had been conscripted to search the building top to bottom. Hermione, a worried expression fixed on her face, was happy to help Sirius search the attic.

**9:45 AM**

"SOMEONE FLOO DUMBLDORE!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked, once more making everyone cringe.

**9:50 AM**

"You are certain he's not there?" Dumbledore asked sharply. Charlie, his head in the fire place, nodded hurriedly.

"We searched the house top to bottom! He's gone." Dumbledore stared at him for a long moment, his mind chewing through every thing that could have happened to the boy. With the Fedilus in place kidnapping was out of the question, and the Marauders were still there so they hadn't taken him.. So then what on earth? Dumbledore shook his head, frowning heavily.

"I will be over shortly, I need to check the tracking charms." The redhead nodded and vanished from the fireplace. Dumbledore scowled. This was hardly the first time Harry had gone and disappeared into the night. He'd had to track the boy down twice before he came to Hogwarts and drag him back home. A few well placed obliviates and compulsion spells to stay in place, and everything was back to the way it needed to be.

If the boy wasn't in the house then he had either run again or was simply hiding somewhere. Getting out of his chair he walked over to the collection of silver devices, chiming and puffing away in the corner. He frowned as he looked them over more closely. The device meant to monitor all the tracking charms was nearly silent, registering only one very old spell.

"Damn it," he growled, earning trilling laughter from Fawkes, which he studiously ignored. He knew if he tried to get Fawkes to stop laughing at him the bird would set him on fire again. Contrary to what people thought the Phoenix was tied to the castle, not to him.

Somehow the boy must have removed the tracking charms, and the one still in place was old and unstable. But luckily it was still registering for the moment. Tapping the device with his wand a glowing blue globe appeared over it. Blinking brightly was a single red dot...which was in the middle of the Atlantic.

Dumbledore's eyebrow twitched and he was forced to close his eyes and take a deep calming breath, or risk destroying his own office. The boy must be on a plane, he thought grimly, studying where the dot seemed to be headed. Turning away he stalked over to the fire place and with a flash of green was gone.

**11:00 AM**

Talyn was tense as the plane came in to land in New York. Hermione hadn't had much time to write in the messenger journal, but she was able to scribble out a quick warning. Apparently they had missed a tracking charm, but according to Hermione Dumbledore said it was an old spell, and as a result it was very inaccurate and unstable. They knew he had to be on a plane, and that he was headed in the general direction of New York, but not his exact location. Unfortunately there was a good chance someone would still be waiting for him at the terminal.

A slight jolt as the plane touched down in America earned an annoyed hoot from Hedwig. Talyn eyed the terminal worriedly, the plane taxing to the gate. Even if Dumbledore was still tracking him it had only been an hour since they had realized he was gone. Could they have gotten international portkeys in that amount of time?

People began to stand up as the plane finally came to a halt and the stewardess opened the door. Talyn waited for a good number of people to begin getting off the plane before muscling his way into the aisle, his backpack on his shoulders and Hedwig's cage held carefully in front of him. He checked his surroundings quickly as he stepped out of the bridge and into the building. No one obviously badly dressed and no one wearing robes. It looked like he just might be getting lucky today. Just as the thought crossed his mind a hand landed heavily on his shoulder.

Talyn flinched hard and cursed when he nearly dropped Hedwig. Spinning around he glared hard, expecting to find an Order member of some kind. Instead what he saw was two men dressed in black suits. Talyn stared at them for a moment. "Um...hello?" he hazarded his free hand wrapped around his wand in his pocket, but deciding to give them a chance to not turn out to be Dumbledore lackeys.

"We're from the American Ministry and are currently looking for a run away from the UK. Being the only magical on the plane we need to check your identity to ensure that you're not the person we're looking for," one man said politely. Talyn blinked and blinked again, taken aback. Well, here goes nothing...let's see if Sirius was right about the name thing.

Pulling his ID out of his pocket he held it out. The second wizard took the ID while the first surreptitiously recast the notice-me-not that had kept Talyn from spotting them. He studied the ID for a moment before running his wand over the name on the little plastic card and then waving it in a complicated pattern at Talyn. He studied the card again and showed it to his partner who raised an eyebrow before smirking.

"Mr. Talyn? I'd like to thank you for your time. We have confirmed that you are not the person we are looking for, however the spell indicates that although your first name is indeed real your last name is false. Is there a particular reason for this?" Talyn blinked, taken aback by the grins on both their faces before he realized what was really going on.

They knew. They knew he was Harry, but his name was real thanks to the magic Remus used. So legally they had no reason to think he was anyone else, and last but not least apparently American wizards had a grudge against the British ministry. "My old last name holds some bad memories for me so I decide to change it a while back, will this be a problem?" he asked politely. The two smirked.

"No, not really sir. All you have to do to make your last name legal is tie it to your magic. It just tacks it onto your name and you can legally use any combination you want."

"Really? How do I add that then?" he asked, knowing that without a doubt the two Americans in front of him were having a ball with this.

"It's quite simple. All you need to do is, while holding your wand and channeling magic through it, pronounce your name as whatever you want after saying Verus Appello ," the first man explained. Talyn nodded and pulled out his wand.

"Verus Appello Talyn Ashton," he said while channeling the magic as the man had said. He felt a brief shift in his magic and got the distinct feeling that it had worked. "That good?" he asked. The man ran the spell again and smiled, handing him back his ID.

"Indeed it is, Mr. Ashton. Would you like me to remove the tracking charm that seems to be on you as well? Using them without authorization is illegal here."

"Oh, of course!" Talyn agreed happily. The first wizard waved his wand around him for a moment before pronouncing the charm canceled.

"Thank you."

"I'm glad we could help you out, please have a nice day." They both left smirking. Smiling Talyn shook his head trying not to laugh. Hermione was going to love this. Glancing up at the clock his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he realized he had five minutes to get across the massive terminal to his next flight.

"SHIT!" And he was gone, racing across the building.

The rest of the trip went much more quietly with the removal of the tracking charm. Hermione's commentary from the Order became steadily more animated as they panicked, he almost wished he could be there just to see the chaos!

At 2AM he switched planes for the third time in some city in South America called Lima and headed for Santiago where he switched once more, and for the last time. Finally almost 2 days after he had left the UK he landed in Ushuaia Argentina at 1PM on the 3rd of September. He may have traveled over 11,000 miles with Hermione's help, but the last 300 were up to him.

X X X

**Back with the Order**

Sirius had known something was up the moment Ron had said Harry wasn't in his room. The boy had said he had something big planned, but vanishing out of headquarters in the middle of the night and subsequently evading capture was really quite impressive.

Ron and Hermione had been hurriedly loaded onto the train, somehow managing to be on time. Shortly thereafter Dumbledore's one remaining tracking charm had failed only minutes after Harry's arrival in the US. The American Ministry had claimed that there had been only one flight that he could have been on, and after checking they determined that Harry Potter was not on the flight.

Sirius could smell the bullshit on that a mile away. 'Harry Potter' might not have been on the flight but was _anyone_ magical on it? Smart pup. It wasn't until around midnight that he and Remus were able to escape the chaos still going on downstairs to talk about The Great Escape.

"So what do you think of the newest Marauder's first prank?" Remus asked. Sirius snickered.

"Oh, 10 out of 10 definitely." Remus nodded, grinning

"Did you see the look on Albus's face when the spell died?" he asked. Sirius cracked up.

"Hell yes! I think it even got a smile out of Snape!"

"He did seem to be enjoying the day's entertainment, didn't he?" Remus agreed with a laugh.

_Flashback_

_"So the americans are going to grab him when he gets off the plane?" Tonks asked Dumbledore nodded, the twinkle at full blast._

_"Indeed they will, we should have Mr. Potter back with us in time to get on the train with no trouble." Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief, and the slivery device on the kitchen table continued to chime softly and show a red dot now in New York.  
"Any idea why he left?" Asked Bill curiously Dumbldore sighed tiredly._

_"I can only guess he is afraid now that Voldemort is back and wished to escape the coming war." Dumbledore tried to explain, the others all nodded in agreement, it seemed like a logical enough conclusion. They waited staring at the little red dot like house cats on the hunt for nearly 20 minutes before anything happened, then, the dot vanished. A moment of utter silence followed before every eye turned to Dumbledore. His eyes were no longer twinkling. Almost a minute passed when the fireplace suddenly flared green._

_"Dumbledore?" Barked an annoyed voice._

_"Ah! Mr. Jackson! I trust you were able to retrieve Mr. Potter successfully?" The headmaster asked sounding just as cheerful as ever even with the twinkle gone from his eyes, the man shrugged._

_"Unfortunately no. There was only one flight out of Heathrow today with anyone magical on it, we intercepted them on disembarkation but no one by the name of Harry Potter was on board. We are sorry we were unable to assist you. Perhaps the plane was a misdirection? And he is still in your country? We wish you good luck on the search! Goodbye Sir." With that the international call ended and silence once again reigned in the kitchen. Sirius and Remus exchanged looks before casting shield spells over themselves and the kids. barely a moment later every plate and cup in the room exploded sending shards of china everywhere._

_End flashback_

Sirius snorted. " I wonder when the last time Dumbles had accidental magic like that was?" He asked grinning and rolled over on his bed making something crinkle. With a frown he rolled away and dug under the blankets. Pulling his hand out revealed an envelope. The two exchanged looks before Remus tackled Sirius and they began fighting over who would get to read what was no doubt Harry's victory note.

"NO FAIR!" Sirius squawked as Remus sat on him and pried his fingers open to retrieve the now slightly battered envelop.

"Oh stop whining Padfoot!" he snickered, opening the letter. "Alright lets see what the cub has to say, hm?" he said and began to read the letter aloud.

_Dear Padfoot and Moony,_

_I hope you have enjoyed the morning's entertainment, I expect pensive memories when we next meet. I can only imagine the look on Dumbles' face when he realized I was gone! I hope as you read this letter I have so far evaded capture. Unfortunately this is the last contact your going to be having from me for a while. I think I've found a way to make sure Voldemort stays dead the next time someone manages to off the bastard, but Dumbles would never let me go somewhere outside his control, so I decided its high time I struck out on my own._

_I'm going to a school. I wont tell you which one or even a general area. I'll try to contact you come summer but I have no idea what their breaks are like, so classes may go all year. Hermione has a messenger journal I have the twin to so I should be able to receive messages through her, but the wards on the school might not allow that so we'll just have to wait and see._

_Wish me Luck,_

_Talyn_

_"_ Well...you gotta give him credit for pulling it off," Remus said after a moment of silence.

"The look on his _face!_ " Sirius sniggered again.

X X X

**September 3rd**

Relaxing outside a small cafe the morning after his arrival, the scent of the ocean on the breeze, he had to say that for now at least life wasn't too bad. Pulling out a book on warding he set about figuring out how to make sure his stuff remained unharmed at Snow Point. In 7 days he would be slogging through the wilderness and he wouldn't have time for reading.

It was almost noon before anything noteworthy happened, he was still sitting at his little table, now with a turkey sandwich and a can of coke. He had tried valiantly to pretend that he'd actually had the drink before, but the Dursleys had never allowed him anything but water, and they didn't have pop in the wizarding world. Still. Coke = delicious, even if he had made the mistake of burping and breathing out through his nose.

Talyn was shaken out of his thoughts a few minutes later when two people approached his table. He eyed them warily, his right hand going into his pocket and wrapping around his wand. A girl looking to be about 17 with black hair and golden eyes was rolling her eyes at her friend and trying to twist her hand loose from his grip. The grinning 18 year old was having none of that and continued to drag her over to Talyn's table.

"Hey!" he declared, still smiling, his spiky black hair sticking up in a thousand directions. "I'm Soren! This is -"

"Kira, and if you don't let go of me I'm going to bite you!" the girl snapped, showing off long fangs. Soren dropped her hand like it was a branding iron and backed away, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Um...Kira, lets talk about this?" he asked hopefully. "I'm out of anti venom!" She just smirked.

"Then maybe you shouldn't be giving me reasons to take a chunk out of you, should you?" she countered. Talyn watched the argument blankly as they apparently forgot he was there.

"Um...who the hell are you guys?" he asked drily. They blinked and looked at him startled.

"Oh hell, sorry!" the girl answered, apologetic. "I'm Kira, and this moron is Soren," she explained.

"Er...hi? I'm Talyn," he answered hesitantly.

"Its nice to meet you!" Kira agreed before Soren cut in.

"Are you headed to Snow Point too?" Talyn stared at him in surprise for a long moment while Kira face palmed.

"Idiot," she muttered before looking over at Talyn. "Don't let him fool you, he does have a brain, but I'm pretty sure it has an intermittent notice-me-not charm on it." Talyn nodded slowly, not quite sure what to make of the pair in front of him.

"Ok? So...you guys are going to Snow Point as well then?" he asked. They both nodded.

"Yup! We've been looking for people to team up with for the trip, and we sensed you had magic so we decided to ask!" Soren explained.

"Well...I don't see why not," he agreed after a moment of thought. After all, these two seemed to know what they were in for, and having a few friends wouldn't be a bad idea if Snow Point was half as violent as it had been implied.

X X X


	5. Adventure of the Skies

**Chapter 5: Adventure of the Skies**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Sep - 3rd Noon**

"Um, don't take this the wrong way, but are you human?" Talyn asked hesitantly. Kira looked at him with a raised eyebrow, her odd gold eyes glinting dangerously. Both of the new comers had claimed seats at his little table and ordered their own lunches. Kira was leaning back in her chair her white leather jacket slung over the back of her chair leaving her in only a black t-shirt and blue jeans.

"Got a problem if I'm not?" she drawled, Soren studying him with narrowed eyes as well. Talyn shook his head rapidly in denial.

"No! I just saw those fangs you had and was curious," he defended. Kira stared at him for a long moment before smiling.

"Well, in that case, I'll refrain from ripping off your arms and legs and dropping you in the bay...and yes, we both aren't human. I'm a Lamia and Soren's a -"

"DRAKON!" Soren cut in excitedly all but bouncing in place. Talyn just blinked at them in confusion.

"Um...what?" Kira sighed and smacked Soren over the head.

"Soren is a Drakon, as he said. That means he's a dragon that can turn into a human, if he wants too."

"Yeah! Not a human that can turn into a dragon! A dragon that can turn into a human! There is a difference," Soren cut in, causing Kira to hit him again.

"As I was saying!" she snapped. " Drakons are personality wise much like other dragons. Territorial, over excitable, and with a brain the size of a pea."

"OI!" Soren squawked. Talyn snickered quietly. These two had obviously had known each other for a very long time to be able to heckle each other like this with no real anger.

"And as I said I'm a Lamia, which is a kind of snake," she explained. "We are always female and are considered the Empresses of Serpents. In my snake form I stay a human from the waist up, but my legs turn into a tail and my human half gains white scales like my snake half. I am also extremely venomous," she grinned, showing off her fangs once more.

"So be careful, she has no problem biting people who piss her off!" Soren agreed. Kira glared at him. Talyn looked thoughtful for a moment before deciding there couldn't really be any harm, and may very well be funny as hell.

 _"A kind of snake?"_ he hissed. _"Its very nice to meet you Kira."_ The two were staring at him with open mouths.

"Sweet!" Soren was grinning again. "I thought you were human! What are you then?" he asked. Kira was still blinking at him in surprise.

"Um...I AM human, I've just always been able to talk to snakes," he disagreed. Kira frowned heavily.

"I doubt that," she said finally. "A human CAN'T make the sounds necessary to speak serpent, the larynx isn't shaped right. So to speak it you HAVE to be, at least in part, not human." Talyn stared at her uncertainly.

"I think I would know if I wasn't human," he said slowly. The other two exchanged looks.

"Not necessarily. You would be amazed at the amount of weird shit that can happen with crossbreeds. How old are you again?" Soren asked seriously. Talyn was beginning to think that maybe revealing his ability was a bad idea, but answered all the same.

"16, and I'm telling you, I'm human," he answered. Kira made a humming noise in thought while Soren looked expectantly at her.

"Well, nothing comes to mind. There aren't really any snake hybrids that do the sudden changeover at 18, and none that I know of would only show signs with speech."

"Told you," Talyn deadpanned. Kira just shook her head, grinning.

"No such luck Talyn, that just means I have to actually consult a book!" she taunted. Talyn let his head fall to the table with a thud while Soren laughed.(1)

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

**Sep. 7th 8AM**

Chaos was the only word he could use to describe his week since he had met Kira and Soren. The Drakon never stopped pissing her off and was lucky he had gone and brewed more of that anti-venom when he proved her threat of biting people who pissed her off very true.

Apparently the two had grown up together in a city hidden in the Rocky Mountains. Although many magical creatures had joined the 20th century and lived together in hidden cities they still stayed true to their natures, it was a very good thing he had met them or he would have never learned the system for knowing what someone was and how to avoid problems.

Soren and Kira both wore small silver bracelets with different colored stones in them. Kira's were bright green with yellow and white. This apparently translated as venomous, easily angered, and shape-shifter. Green for venom,yellow for moderate danger, and white for shape-shifter.

Soren's were yellow and white. Yellow once more for moderately dangerous and the white a shape-shifter. Talyn shook his head at the explanation.

"Seems a little too much like that bullshit about vampires and werewolves back in Europe having to be registered," he disagreed. Soren just shook his head.

"I know what you mean, but honestly the cities would never survive without the system, there's just too many people for any one person to know what everybody is and who not to piss off if they want their head to stay attached." Kira nodded.

"The council put the system in place about 200 years ago and fatalities in the cities dropped almost 40 percent within a decade. We learn the system when we're little so we don't even really think about it anymore." Talyn just stared at her blankly for a moment.

"Any chance I could get a color key for this?" he asked. Soren rolled his eyes while Kira pulled out a piece of paper and started scribbling.

"Its not that difficult! Light blue is non violent, yellow is moderately dangerous, orange is very dangerous, and black is do not, under any circumstances, fuck with. Then you've got the secondary colors which is a warning as to what you should expect. Green is poisonous, white is shape shifter, any kind of shape shifter, and purple means there's a good chance they'll try and eat you. That's not all but those are the important ones," Soren finished. Kira snorted and held out the list she had been writing. Talyn snagged it immediately and glanced down at the list.

Light Blue - non violent

Yellow - moderate danger

Orange - high danger

Black - extremely dangerous

Green - poison

White – shape shifter

Purple - predators

Talyn shook his head, he could see how this could be useful with a lot of different species living together, but it still just seemed odd.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

**Sep 10th Noon**

Waiting for noon had to be the most stressful experience he had ever dealt with, and this included standing in that damn tent waiting to face off against a pissed off dragon. He was sitting at a table outside the same cafe he had first met his two new friends as they waited tensely. Soren was slowly shredding a napkin into tiny pieces and Kira was double checking the supplies they had stuffed into his backpack. Talyn had been rather embarrassed to realize he hadn't even thought of how he was going to survive in the snowy mountains for two days. Luckily Kira had them all covered there, she had her own shrunken trunk now safely stored in his backpack. Among other things it held a muggle tent and enough food to keep them out of trouble for a few days.

"Are you here for the test?" a voice demanded sharply. Talyn flinched hard while Kira shrieked and fell over. Soren's eyes had gone from a normal human brown to an almost electric blue with slit pupils, all the while baring sharp fangs.

All three turned to glare at the man who had sneaked up on them. He was tall with sandy colored hair and amber eyes. He smirked at them. "Might want to work on that reaction time, kits," he drawled, eyes glinting with amusement as they recovered.

"Yes, we are taking the test," Talyn grounded out, trying to resist the urge to hex someone no doubt much more powerful than him. The bastard knew it too and just smirked infuriatingly at him.

"All three of you?" he asked. They all nodded, still glaring daggers. "Well then, welcome to what is likely to be the last two days of your life! Although many people know about the fact that about a third of students die at Snow Point, one way or another, it is a lesser known fact that only about a 4th of those who _attempt_ to make it there actually do!" The three exchanged grim looks. "Still want to try?" he asked tauntingly.

"Yes," Soren growled, Kira and Talyn nodding in agreement. The man looked at them appraisingly for a moment before chuckling.

"Alright then, here are the rules. There aren't many of them, but they are iron clad. If you break them we WILL know. One, you may not use a broom. Two, you may not steal a boat from the locals, buying one or bringing your own is allowed. Three, you may not travel in groups larger then 4. Four, teleportation of any kind is not allowed. And five, you must reach the school by noon on the 12th to be accepted." He considered them with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you understand the rules?" he asked. They nodded. He smiled and reached into his pocket, pulling out three small, bronze compasses. "Then I'm pleased to give you these." They each took a compass, looking them over. On the cover was a detailed engraving of a compass rose overlaid with a cursive S. Written around the edge were the words 'endure the storm, and find your way.' "The compass will always point towards the school," the man explained. "All you need to do is follow it until you reach the school, you'll know when you get there." With that he disappeared with a sharp crack of apparition. They were silent for a long moment before Kira finally spoke.

"The next time I see that guy I'm biting him," she said flatly. Soren and Talyn both nodded.

"Ditto," they both said before flipping their compasses open. The dial inside was silver, the tiny degree markings also in silver. Currently the blue tipped end, labeled with an N, was pointing south.

"Well then, I think we ought to get this show on the road," Soren said with a grin.

Xxxxxxxxx

**2PM**

"So how are we going to do this? Just walk the whole way there?" Soren drawled, almost two hours later.

"Hardly. We're going to fly. We just need to get far enough away so the normals in town can't possibly see us and find a clearing to take off in." Talyn answered while ducking another swipe from Hedwig who seemed to have decided his new hair style needed to die. Kira and Soren stared at him, confused.

"Okay, Soren can fly on his own, but they said no brooms so how the hell are the two of us getting there? You didn't think Soren's dragon form can carry all of us, did you? He's the size of a dog!" Talyn blinked in surprise.

"Seriously? The size of a dog?"

"Well, somewhat. His body is, he's mostly tail and wings so he looks bigger than he really is. Please tell me that wasn't really your plan?" she asked hopefully.

"Hardly. I figured he could fly himself and I could carry you!" They both stared at him.

"You can fly?" they both asked simultaneously. He grinned and rather than explain twisted his magic into the change he'd been practicing. He was down to under 30 seconds now. Soren and Kira stared at the winged tiger now sitting where he had been moments before.

"YOU'RE A BLUE TIGER?!" Kira screeched. Talyn laid his pointed ears back in pain and glared at her, she winced. "Sorry." He just snorted and scratched something in the dirt with a claw. Soren, who was closest, leaned over to try and read Talyn's message.

"Your handwriting is terrible," he announced after several seconds, earning a snicker out of Kira and a low growl from Talyn. "He says he's an animagus," he finally explained, rather hurriedly when Talyn barred fangs as long as his hand at him.

"Right, I think you are big enough to carry me and our supplies," Kira agreed thoughtfully. "But I doubt that's going to let us avoid all the challenges here. We have to stay alert," she continued. The guys both nodded. Soren's eyes glowed the same blue they had back at the cafe, then between one moment and the next a small wippy looking dragon with bright blue scales stood in the teens place.

Soren was about 15 feet, snout to tail, with equally long wings - but like Kira had said his body was only about the size of a large dog. Talyn stood up and waited while Kira clambered onto his back just behind his wings. "If you drop me I will haunt you, got it?" she told him, brightly patting his ears. Talyn wondered if he should have practiced carrying people before they tried this right now. Flying was itself not to difficult, but take off with a passenger was bound to be tricky. Hedwig hooted and flew past him, he glanced at the direction she was going and smiled faintly, of course she would spot the best take off point.

It was the direction with the fewest things to crash into if he couldn't gain altitude fast enough, honestly he hadn't thought of that potential problem, it was a good thing he had her she had been the one to teach him to fly he thought amused and spread his dark wings out before darting across the field. Kira clung to his back tightly while he tried to gain some momentum, then with one hard flap he launched himself skyward. It was a good thing he had been able to practice flying in the week they had been waiting or he probably would have tried flapping his wings like a crazed chicken when he didn't immediately gain altitude. Instead, skimming the grass, he just kept pumping his wings hard, going for power rather then speed.

Finally he cleared the trees, circling the clearing to gain more height before setting his wings to glide for a moment while he tried to get his breath back. Soren swooped by, screeching at him, having had no trouble taking off. It was hard to understand the dragon, but he was indeed close enough to get the gist of it. He bared his fangs at the tiny darting irritation, wordlessly promising pain if he didn't stop flying into his face.

Soren did a very good imitation of wily coyote in midair, rowing his wings to keep himself from flying by Talyn's head again, and managed to completely stall and plummeted almost 30 feet before catching himself again. Kira was practically cackling on his back. "And me without my camera!" she sniggered. Soren hissed at her, but she just stuck her tongue out at him.

Talyn shook his head and concentrated on gaining more altitude while Hedwig flew just ahead and above him. Flying with a passenger wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd thought it would be, but Kira was no feather, and he had a feeling it was going to be like carrying a sack of bricks around before too long. Not that he would tell her that, he wasn't sure Soren would let him borrow any of that anti venom after snapping at him like he had.

Xxxxxxx

" _Are we there yet?"_ Soren hissed buzzing Talyn's head trying the animagus's last thread of patience, he had taken up dive bombing him again after Hedwig the terrible had flown off to hunt. He wasn't worried about loosing her, she could find him almost anywhere.

"NO!" Kira snarled back, pulling out her wand and shooting a yellow spell he didn't know at the darting dragon. Talyn sighed and stretched his wings out to their furthest extent to catch the slightest thermal and locked them into a glide.

He had been right about carrying Kira, the Lamia was beginning to weigh a ton. Glancing tiredly at the ground he almost didn't catch it, but years of spotting tiny discrepancies to find the snitch in Quidditch, and avoid the bludgers, allowed him to see it.

The shadows on the mountain below them. There should be two, but there were four. Making a split second decision he roared and folded his left wing almost completely. Kira screamed, clinging to his back as he rolled to the left and dropped.

His maneuver hadn't been a second too slow as talons as long as his arm cut through the space he had occupied a moment before. He risked a look behind him as he dropped away, trying to figure out what had attacked him. It took him a second to comprehend what he was looking at, but once he did he snapped his wings open and executed another vicious turn to the right, this time to avoid another slash.

Eagles. Eagles the size of fighter jets. They were pure silver with black beaks and talons and bright golden eyes. Soren had dove at the same time he had, but hadn't been quite fast enough, and was currently spiraling towards the ground between the two peaks they'd been flying between, with a large tear in his right wing. He wasn't in any danger of crashing, but staying in the air would be impossible. Unfortunately this left both of the eagles with only one airborne target as Soren disappeared into the cover of the trees below.

"THOSE ARE FUCKING ROCS!" Kira yelled at him over the howling winds as he blew between two trees, trying to lose the one on his tail. Talyn thought hard, a Roc? Weren't those giant eagles the size of a 747 or something? These were big, but they weren't _that big_.

Apparently the fish tale effect had stuck again, and so the bird got bigger with every retelling. Still, fighter jet sized eagles were nothing to laugh at. Talyn was torn out of his thoughts a moment later by the sudden appearance of the second Roc in front of him.

Pulling a trick out of his Quidditch play book he barrel rolled under it and bit at its tail as he went by. His fangs failed to find purchase in flesh though and all he came away with was a mouth full of feathers. The Roc screamed and Talyn flinched, coming out of the roll sloppily, one of his primaries clipping a tree and snapping off.

Pain stabbed down his wing, the feathers weren't like a human's hair or something like that. Some were fed by a vein as they were still growing, and snapping it off was not only painful but dangerous. The broken feather bleed far more then a simple cut would. Kira cursed and tried to aim a spell at the wing, but his continued flapping and wrenching turns threw off her aim. She finally got her chance as he arced into a wide turn, wings still, as he banked hard. The light green spell connected and almost immediately clotted the blood flowing from the broken feather.

Kira had taken a little to long with her spell though and he was dizzy from blood loss. The first Roc screeched behind him, snapping at his tail. He dove, trying to ignore the burning pain in his wing muscles. He wasn't used to flying this much and he was tiring to fast. Banking again he climbed this time, flapping hard and groaning in pain as the broken feather bent with every stroke. He powered upward, the Roc's circling up behind him.

"TALYN! YOU HAVE TO LAND!" Kira yelled over the wind, shooting spells behind them at the Roc's now that she could actually aim. Kira's sudden scream a moment later was almost too late. Pain tore through his back as a much smaller, more white colored Roc slashed at him as it dove. He roared in pain and folded his wings, dropping though the air and past the two adults. One tried to bite him as he fell past it but he twisted out of reach and bit down on its wing, tearing out another mouthful of feathers.

The Roc screeched and banked away, allowing him to slip through the tangled branches of the valley's forest below. He would have broken his neck if not for Kira's rapidly cast spell. The effect was similar to Aresto Momentum and he suddenly felt like he was dropping through molasses. His paws hit the ground and he took two running steps before all but collapsing to the ground, breathing hard.

The two Roc's and their fledgling screeched above the trees, but they couldn't get a clear shot through the branches and wouldn't try to attack on the ground even if they were bigger. Kira clambered off his back, swearing and casting spells on his back. "Fucking little bastard! I should have known they would have a chick around at this time of the year!" she cursed while casting. A few minutes later Soren came crashing through the trees, out of breath and bleeding sluggishly from his right arm.

"SHIT! Talyn, you okay?" he asked. Talyn gave him a distinctly malevolent look out of the corner of his eye and bared his fangs. Soren winced. "Okay! Stupid question!" he agreed and helped Kira heal his back over. Talyn sighed and made a face, realizing he still had a mouth full of feathers before he spat them out. Kira glanced over from where she was now checking his broken feather.

"You should keep those, there's a lot of things you can do with Roc feathers," she told him before casting a low power severing charm at the last bit of broken shaft holding the outer part of the broken feather to his wing. "You could do some interesting stuff with this too," she added while holding up the two feet of nearly black feather.

"So...what are we going to do now? I really don't think taking off again would be a good idea," Soren cut in. Kira and Talyn shared a frown as she cast a numbing charm on the wing tip before yanking the shaft of the feather out.

"Well, we're going to have to take off again at some point unless you want to hike over the mountains," she answered, sealing the bleeding wing up with a few careful spells. Eying her handy work for a minute she nodded. "Right, you can change back now. Your arm and back is probably going to hurt like hell for a while, but you should be fine. I'm not the best healer, but you won't bleed out now at least. You should get it checked out when we get to school." Talyn nodded and focused on changing back to human form. Nearly five minutes later he was cradling an aching hand and swearing. Soren snorted.

"I suppose you forgot to mention that shifting injuries around like that makes them hurt worse?" he asked. Kira shrugged.

"I told him it would hurt," she answered.

"A little warning about making it worse would have been nice," he growled. Kira rolled her eyes.

"Big baby," she muttered, picking her bag up off the ground. "Now come on, we don't have time to sit around and whine. We should head for the next valley before we take off again. Those Rocs will have a massive range, but getting out of this valley should give us enough breathing room to fly out of here."

Xxxxxxxxx

"Well at least it's kinda nice out," Talyn pointed out two hours later. Soren and Kira turned to stare at him incredulously. It was cold and misty down in the valley, and Talyn seemed to be thriving even with his injuries.

"What?" he asked, confused. Soren shook his head.

"You're nuts," he deadpanned. Kira nodded as Talyn blinked, nonplussed.

"Now who's the big baby?" he asked, moving past them and down the hill. They had moved out of the valley they'd crashed in about a half an hour before, and now all they needed to find was a clearing to take off.

Talyn sighed in relief when he realized the trees were starting to thin out. Up ahead they ended and a snowy mountain side stretched out, the mountain side to their left was riddled with icy caves. A sharp cliff rose up to their right, almost 10 meters high. Streams of melt water poured out of two of them in a brilliant waterfall. He paused at the tree line to admire the sight for a moment. A shifting shadow in one of the caves made him tense.

"Dammit," he muttered. The other two froze, glancing around.

"What is it?" Kira hissed quietly, looking around warily.

"The smaller cave next to the waterfall, the shadow in the entrance shifted," he answered quietly. Soren stared hard at the opening, his eyes their bright draconic blue.

"Oh...shit," he whispered, a sudden look of horror on his face.

"What?"

"I can see farther than you two," he answered squeakily, edging backwards into the sparse trees.

"So what the hell is over there?" Kira demanded sharply.

"Chimera," he answered blandly. Utter silence answered this announcement before both Talyn and Kira turned to stare at the cave in open mouthed shock.

"I know they don't want a lot of people to make it to school, but isn't that a bit excessive?" Kira asked as they all edged back into the woods.

"I don't think they know the meaning of the word," Talyn snarked. Finding a chimera of all things was not something that happened by chance. They were constructs, magical creatures put together and given life by the maker. You didn't just _find a_ chimera, someone had left it here. Three guesses who.

"So... Ideas?" Talyn asked after a few moments.

"We're going to have to go back and find a way around," Kira announced grimly, already turning to head back the way they came.

"We don't have time for that!" Soren snapped. "We have to find a way through here, or we'll never make it in time!"

"Just how fast are these things?" Talyn asked. The other two snorted.

"Fast enough that it'll block that trail before we can run past, and not all Chimera's have the same abilities. Most breath fire like a dragon, but I head of one that could make a cloud of poison like a Nundu. There's no telling what it's capable of!" Soren answered. Kira nodded.

"So what do we have-"

"FUCK! DOWN!" Talyn yelled, spotting a massive fireball heading their way form the cave. The roaring ball of flame tore past them, incinerating several trees. Talyn and Soren were knocked to the left while Kira went right. One half-burned tree groaned before collapsing on the two boys,trapping them under a mess of tangled and charred branches.

Kira staggered to her feet, cursing, and looked back towards the cave. She blanched, seeing the monstrous creature charging down the path. It had the body of a lion with talons like an eagle's and a head like a crocodile's, and a massive frill of bright purple spines around its neck and down its back. A long snake like tail ended in a, no doubt, poisonous spike.

There was no time to think of a spell that would work on a mostly magic proof creature, but that didn't mean she was defenseless. In the seconds it took for the chimera to cross the distance between the trees and the cave she had changed. Ten feet of white scaled tail cracked across the chimera's head as it came into range, knocking it to the left with it's spines failing to puncture the hard scales.

A pattern in gold, like a diamondback rattle snake, decorated the white scales. Kira's, previously tan skin, had paled to the same stark white and made her black hair stand out sharply. She hissed angrily, bearing her fangs at the Chimera as it clambered to its feet.

Lunging forward the razor sharp claws on her hands tore a furrow across its face as she wrapped the end of her tail around one of it's hind feet and yanked it out from under it. The chimera stumbled but didn't fall this time, lashing out with its head. It's jaws snapped shut only inches from her shoulder as she twisted away.

Coiling her tail under her she lunged again, trying to get a clear chance to bite - not much could survive a Lamia's venom. The sudden noise and cloud of dust and rock startled her when the ground behind the chimera suddenly exploded. She knew it had to be the guys, but couldn't risk taking her eyes off the snapping jaws for even a moment to check.

Soren had in fact managed to free himself enough to throw a curse at the chimera, aiming for the ground knowing that the magic would just wash off the monster if he tried to hit it. Talyn cursed and sent a cutting curse at the branches, slashing them into kindling.

"SHIT! We have to get over there!" he growled. Soren snagged his shoulder before he could race off to the rescue.

"You can't just jump in there you fucking idiot!" he snarled. Talyn blinked, shocked at the snarl. "Did you even look at the fight? If you try to jump in there you be just as likely to get hit by her as the damn chimera!"

"What the hell are we supposed to do then?" he demanded.

"Anything explosive you've got, and aim for the ground. Most magic won't work on it directly, but holes in the ground are damn inconvenient, even for something like that!" Talyn nodded and started casting a blasting hex he'd only learned last week while they worked their way around the fight and down the path.

The cascade of explosion only forced the chimera back a few feet, but that was all Kira needed to break away and slither down the trail, darting past the cave and around the bend. The two tore after her.

Nearly a mile further down the path they finally allowed themselves to stop running. Kira was grinning like a loon. "Did you see that! I just fought a damn CHIMERA! THAT WAS AWESOME!" she cheered. Talyn and Soren both looked at her like she was nuts.

"Th-that...was NOT awesome," Soren gasped out, still breathing hard from their sprint. A roar resounded down the trail, making them all freeze. As one the group looked back up the trial.

"Uh...I think we should go now," Talyn said after a moment.

"That sounds like a really good idea. Lets get the fuck out of here before it decides to come after us," Soren agreed. Kira sniggered, still smirking.

"Want to try flying again? There's enough room to take off here." Talyn and Soren snorted.

"If it gets us away from that thing I don't care WHAT we do," Talyn agreed, changing even as Kira shifted back to her human form and climbed aboard. Soren was a blue streak as he shot skywards.

Talyn glanced at his damaged wing and gave an experimental flap. It didn't hurt, but he wasn't sure how the missing primary feather was going to affect his flying. Taking a running takeoff like before he slowly climbed skyward, leaving the chimera far behind. When Hedwig finally returned an hour later, she spotted the missing feather near instantly, and proceeded to screech and snap at him her tirade lasting for almost half an hour. Talyn wasn't about to tell her about the Chimera, she was pissed enough as it was.

Across the ocean to the south over a dozen people were watching a large, faintly glowing three-dimensional map on a table. It had been temporarily zoomed in on the battle. "Hm...not bad. Most would have never even managed to survive that first attack," someone commented. The woman seated at the head of the table only made a humming noise as the others discussed the progress of the various individuals and groups.

"Perhaps," was the woman's only answer. Someone chuckled slightly before speaking.

"Its nice to see a few groups realized that just because they can't use a broom doesn't mean they can't fly another way." The other laughed as well.

"True, but they're usually not brave enough to try and head straight through when they do try flying. I don't think anybody has made it past that chimera in 40 years."

"It can fly, right?" asked another, the man nodded.

"Yup. It's a hell of a lot faster in the air than on the ground too."

"Lucky brats."

"How many have died so far?" the woman asked finally.

"We had 103 to begin with, 23 are dead so far and another 36 have turned back," a short man with bright violet eyes answered.

"41 left then. Better than usual," she commented. The other nodded as she studied the three fliers already nearing the coast before smirking slightly. "Well then, let's see if we can't weed a few more out." Although she made no visible move, the sky in the model began to darken slightly as the atmosphere was thrown just slightly out of balance over the ocean.

In a few hours a blizzard would be roaring over the water and they would see just how many were brave enough to fight their way though the storm. Those that tried to wait it out would find out just how many of the creatures that prowled the forest liked the cover of wind and snow to hunt.

The storm was still out of sight and over the horizon when the three teens landed just a little inland around sunset. "We should rest here for now and try to cross tomorrow," Soren commented, stretching out his tired arms. Talyn groaned in agreement, almost nodding off where he sat on a boulder. Kira was moving stiffly as well as she unpacked a tent from her own shrunken trunk. Apparently bitch slapping that chimera with her tail hadn't been as painless as it had looked, he wouldn't be surprised if her right side was one massive bruise in the morning.


	6. Hold it Steady

Chapter 6: Hold It Steady

 

Xxxxxxxx

**Sep 11 - 4 am**

The storm was still brewing out of sight when Talyn's well tuned danger sense woke him. He laid utterly still while trying to figure out what had awoken him. No sound echoed from the trees around the tent. Talyn narrowed his eyes, earlier the woods had been full of the sounds of insects and the occasional bird. Now there was nothing. Every instinct he had was screaming at him that something dangerous was approaching.

Moving slowly so as to make the least amount of sound possible he rolled out of his sleeping bag and inched his way across the tent to Soren. Putting a hand over his mouth to muffle any sound he gave the boy a slight shake. Soren blinked up at him sleepily. Talyn put a finger to his lips, Soren blinked but nodded, giving him a puzzled look.

Talyn pointed to his ear and waved at the entrance to the tent. Soren frowned and titled his head to the side to listen, an alarmed look crossing his face a moment later. Whether he had realized the same thing Talyn had about the silence or heard something he hadn't Talyn wasn't sure, but Soren wasted no time in rolling silently out of his sleeping bag and waking Kira.

Talyn crept to the tent flap, listening intently while the other two carefully packed away the few supplies they had taken out of the trunks. Not so much as a single cricket was making noise out there. A sudden flash of lightning and a distant rumble made them all flinch, the bolt hadn't been very close but it had thrown enough light to faintly silhouette something standing next to the tent.

A vaguely serpentine form stood outside. A long tail and neck joined a narrow looking body with long thin legs. The trio exchanged looks. Talyn quirked an eyebrow up in question, they both shook their heads. Great, so they had no idea what they were dealing with here other than the fact that the whole damn forest had shut up just because it had strolled through.

Kira grinned suddenly, making them both frown at her. She shook her head and pulled out her wand before standing on her tiptoes to poke the tip out the vent at the top of the tent. A frown settled on her face as she put all her focus into casting silently. A look of triumph crossed her face and she pulled her wand back and looked expectantly around them. A moment later a flash of light burst into existence some distance above them. A flare? Talyn was impressed, that was a spell he'd like to know. What he was far less impressed about were the three shadows now visible through the walls of their tent. Kira winced as the shadows shifted to look up at the flare, a soft hiss sounding from outside.

Talyn gave her an expectant look, she just slowly shook her head looking apologetic. All three of them flinched hard a moment later when something brushed over their minds. Before they could even think of doing anything though they had all been frozen in place. From the looks on both Soren and Kira's faces' they were panicking.

 ** _"SILENCE!"_** A mental voice snapped sharply. Talyn grimaced slightly, he hated having anyone in his head, but it didn't take an idiot to realize whoever was talking to them was _not_ one of the creatures outside. **_"Correct, I am the Headmistress of Snow Point Academy. The creatures currently outside your tent are not part of the test, and I am not so cruel as to attempt to make a bunch of children fight a pack of Warsa."_**

Talyn could see both Soren and Kira's eyes widen in terror. **_"At least the two of you understand the danger. For you, Mr. Ashton, simply understand that these creatures eat magic, and if given the chance will herd you somewhere they can trap you and continue draining your magic when it recovers until you are lucky enough to die."_**

Talyn blanched. Okay, yeah, that was bad, but what were they supposed to do? A distinct feeling of humor answered his thought before the voice spoke again. **_"We will not simply solve everything for you, but in one minute you will be given a distraction that should allow you to make it to the coast. Whether or not you can use that to your advantage and survive will be purely of your own doing. Good luck, and I expect to see you all at the welcoming feast tomorrow."_**

With that the connection broke. Talyn winced slightly, his head pounding a bit from the mental conversation. Kira and Soren crept up next to him at the tent flap, knowing they had to run at the first opportunity. Talyn left the opening and moved over to where Hedwig was perched, now wide awake and swiveling her head rapidly to the left and right, trying to keep track of all the Warsa outside. She hopped off her perch and onto his shoulder, tucking herself tightly into the crook of his neck so she wouldn't be knocked off when he ran for it.

Talyn crept back to the entrance, noting that Kira had his backpack on her shoulders as usual. This was good because he wouldn't have to worry about handing it off to her if they needed to fly to escape. Hedwig dug her talons into his shoulder harshly quite suddenly, her feathers slicking down as she tried to make herself smaller, the door of the tent twitching as something nudged it. Talyn was never so grateful for zippers. A soft hiss sounded outside.

A sudden flair of power to the north made them all twitch, a number of startled hisses sounding outside before, with the faintest of rustles, the Warsa shot north after the scent of powerful magic. Kira waited a beat before tearing the zipper up and all but diving out of the tent, Soren and Talyn close on her heels as they ran for it, abandoning the tent.

They had gone barely half a mile when a long, loud hissing shriek sounded from behind them far back up the trail. They didn't stop to look but only ran faster. Soren stumbled on a root but managed to catch himself before he broke an ankle. The tree cover finally broke as they came out on a low ridge.

Hedwig launched herself off his shoulder while Talyn wasted no time in transforming, the night seeming to get brighter with the change to tiger eyes. Kira jumped on his back, clinging like a bur as he jumped off the ridge. It was no cliff but the sharp incline to the next valley was enough for him to drop and gain enough speed for lift.

He pivoted and looked back at the ridge, circling higher as he watched. Several glinting scaled forms stood on the ridge where they had been only moments before, blankly glowing white eyes watching their every move. Each Warsa was covered in black scales and looked like a cross between a snake and a greyhound, but the size of a horse.

"Fuck that was close," Kira muttered, looking down as well. "Warsa are some of those most dangerous creature that _exist_. They'll probably send a team out to kill them as soon as the test is over," she explained. Talyn only nodded and turned due south again. Kira sighed and pulled out her compass, checking the heading for a moment before putting it away. "We're still on track," she informed him tiredly. Talyn nodded, glancing to the side where Soren and Hedwig were flying. Soren seemed to be holding his one back leg a little oddly, he must have twisted it on that root, he decided.

It was still dark when they reached the coast half an hour later, so they turned west and followed the beach for another few miles before coming in to land on the rocky shore. _"We should wait till morning to cross, it's only an hour from now,"_ Soren hissed. Talyn nodded, stretching tiredly as Kira climbed off. With a sigh he changed back and sat on a large rock.

"You okay Soren?" he asked once he was able to speak again. The dragon nodded, he was holding his hind leg off the ground.

 _"I'll be fine, just twisted it,"_ he hissed.

"Good. Any idea how far we're going to need to fly?" he asked. Soren stared thoughtfully out across the water while Kira pulled out her compass and studied it.

"Well, everything I've ever heard puts the island Snow Point's on about half way between here and Antarctica. So about 200 miles at best, but probably farther."

 _"Think you can fly for 5 hours straight through?"_ Soren asked. Talyn eyed the waters warily.

"I supposed I'll have to. Any advise?" he asked. Soren hissed softly to himself, thinking.

 _"Fly as high as you can, it will let you glide farther when you're tired, and whatever you do DON'T LAND, even if you feel like you couldn't fly another inch. If you land in the water you won't be able to take off again. Birds might be able to manage that but you are not a bird. You land, you die. If we're lucky we'll be able to find a good current and just glide on that, but we probably won't be, the winds here are too chaotic."_ Talyn nodded and looked back out over the water. About 10, maybe 15, miles away, across the water, was a large island. Hopefully they could take a short rest on the far side before getting into it for the long haul.

Hedwig was the first to notice the sudden silence from the ragged forest that bordered the beach, she hissed and clacked her beak, wings half spread to take off. All three of them froze and eyed the quiet trees. "Deja'vu anyone?" Talyn muttered. They both nodded and stood up slowly, keeping their backs to the water.

"How the hell did they get here so fast? Nothing is that fast on the ground! We must have gone 30 miles and it's only been half an hour!" Kira muttered darkly. Talyn drew his wand, keeping it ready. He hadn't forgotten what the headmistress had said about these things eating magic, but maybe something that didn't directly affect them would work. A slight flash of scales was their only warning before the attack came, but he was ready.

"CONTEGO!" he yelled, a dark green shield snapping into existence in a half circle in front of the group, the first of the Warsa slammed into it with a hard crack. The shield shuddered but didn't give.

"SHIT! Talyn, it'll eat the damn shield!" Kira yelled back, peddling to the water's edge.

"I know! How well can you swim?" He asked sharply as the entire pack poured out of the bushes, there had to be at least 15 of the damn things, and they kept moving and weaving around each other in a dizzying pattern.

"Pretty well in my true form, why?" she growled as Soren spread his wings and shrieked at a Warsa that was trying to work its way around the shield, the creature retreated back to the main group.

"Do you think you can swim to the island?" he asked. She blinked and looked out to sea, considering the distance.

"Maybe. Why?"

"Because I can't transform without dropping this shield. I might be able to get myself out of here but there would be no time to pick you up before they would be on us! I can grab you on the island, can these things even swim?" he asked. Kira shook her head no.

"No, they can't, but I'm not sure I can make it that far in water this cold. I'm not coldblooded, but the water will affect me more then it would anything warmblooded."

"I don't think we have a choice!"Soren hissed. Talyn was about to nod when he felt a sudden wrench on the shield, he turned back to see the largest of the Warsa with its jaws gaping open like it was taking a massive breath, the pull increased, draining power from the shield.

"SHIT! Kira, GO!" he snapped. Soren took off, circling high above the Warsa while she changed and slithered into the water after casting numerous spells on herself and on the backpack still on her shoulders. Talyn waited as long as he could for her to move away from the beach before he, with a final glare at the Warsa draining his shield, broke the connection and twisted his magic. Normally it still took about 15 seconds to change, but motivation was a wonderful thing. He was off the ground and flapping hard before the shield even had a chance to fall completely.

One of the Warsa below screeched and tried to jump up and catch him before he could gain enough altitude but Hedwig slashed at it's head, forcing it to duck in surprise. He turned, still gaining height slowly but surely in the harsh wind beginning to blow in from the south.

Finally managing to get about 50 feet over the water he glided for a moment, searching for Kira. The white scales would be nearly impossible to spot in the foamy water, but Soren had already followed her and was gliding above. Talyn coasted down along side and was astonished at just how fast Kira could swim. She tore through the water, her long tail propelling her almost as fast as he could fly.

Kira barely made it to the island, having had to recast the warming charms four times en route, if anything though she was lucky she was in the water. She could swim under the white caps now being generated by the harsh winds, he and Soren had to fight their way through the head wind. Black storm clouds hung on the horizon, the sky over them already overcast as a storm of titanic proportions moved north.

Landing hard on the rocky shore of the island they clambered over the rocks to where Kira was shivering, still in her snake form. _"Change back!"_ Soren hissed. She shot him a sour look but nodded in agreement. The change from Lamia to human was decidedly slower when she was half frozen, but she managed it all the same. Cursing softly she started casting more spells around herself.

"So what now?" Kira asked. "We don't have a tent anymore, and I kinda doubt that storm is going to blow itself out before it becomes a problem."

 _"We have to keep going,"_ Soren hissed. Talyn nodded as Kira glanced south and grimaced at the bitingly cold wind.

"Well, this is going to be fun," she muttered, hauling herself to her feet. "If we're flying through _that_ I want a little extra insurance that I'm not going to fall off you," she said, Talyn nodded, wondering what she had in mind. Her movements still a little sluggish she tugged the backpack off and pulled out her own shrunken trunk. After digging around for a moment in it she came up with a bundle of bright blue climbing rope. "I'm just going to make a simple harness so I at least have something better than your fur to hold onto," she explained.

Talyn nodded and stood up so she could start looping the rope around his chest. She ended up making two loops with a short bit of slack line between them, she had him put his front legs through the loops, the piece of slack going across his chest and between his legs. Next she tied the tops of the loops on his legs together on his back just in front of his wings. She would be able to hold onto the rope on his back, and the loops on his legs would keep the harness from slipping forward or back. Not too bad for something she had probably invented on the spot.

Stepping back to inspect her work she nodded differentially. "Its not the best, but it'll work. Just having something to hang onto when you're getting tossed around in that storm will be helpful." Talyn stretched and rolled his shoulders, the rope was a bit uncomfortable, but it wouldn't impede him any.

"Right then, lets get the hell out of here before those Warsa decide to try swimming," Kira said with a grin while re-shrinking her trunk and putting it back in the backpack. Settling the bag on her back she climbed onto Talyn's back and gave the harness an experimental tug, it held and she nodded to Talyn.

With a sigh he spread his wings and leapt into the wind, wings held wide. The wind caught him hard and shoved him backwards, but he tilted his wings carefully and let the wind push him upwards like a kite. Soren rowed his wings hard, trying to match his speed once they started heading forward, but the headwind was nearly 40 miles an hour now.

 _"This is going to be a **really** long flight,"_ he grumbled, squinting against the wind. _"We need get above this storm if possible. It might be too high for us, but we might have better luck with calmer winds if we can at least get away from the water."_ Talyn nodded and they both began to work their way up. Kira sighed and cast another warming charm on herself, wishing she was good enough at them to help Soren and Talyn, but the spell she knew was specifically meant to be cast on one's self, it tended to break down when cast on other people because of the way it was powered.

Kira nearly jumped out of her skin a moment later when sharp talons latched onto her arm. Hedwig gave her a baleful look and turned on Kira's arm so that her back was to the Lamia. Catching on Kira brought her arm in to her chest, letting Hedwig tuck herself under her chin and avoid the howling winds. Talyn glanced back at them and nodded, seeing the owl was alright.

About an hour into the flight they finally hit the storm itself. Talyn almost hadn't realized what he was looking at when he first saw it. A solid wall of white was fast approaching them, it was like the horizon was simply gone. _"SHIT! Talyn! Fold your wings right before you hit it and don't open them until you're stable, alright?"_ Soren screeched. Talyn nodded, eyes narrowed as he took in the wall. Kira tucked her head down until she was nearly lying down on his back with both hands now on the harness and Hedwig braced between her elbows on his back.

"This is going to suck," she muttered darkly as the distance closed. Talyn waited until the wall of wind and snow was barely a few feet from his nose before slamming his wings closed and pulling his legs in tight to his body. The front hit them hard, knocking the wind out of everyone. Talyn kept his wings and legs in tight even as the hurricane force winds bore down on him, hurling him into a spin. (1)

He squinted hard, trying to keep the driving snow out of his eyes and get himself level, flicking out the tiniest bits of feather to try and compensate. After almost 10 minutes of getting thrown across the sky, but somehow not hitting the water, he finally got himself level and facing the right way up.

Carefully he opened his wings the slightest bit, trying to ease into the wind, but being as inexperienced at flying with wings as he was he wasn't able to keep the raging wind from tearing his wings open. With a roar of pain he managed to haul his wings to a semblance of level, his shoulders aching viciously from the wrenching they had just received. He gave a hard flap and began moving forward once more.

Kira groaned from his back, her knuckles having long since turned white from hanging on so tightly. "I am never flying again," she growled darkly, not that Talyn could hear her over the wind. Bracing one hand tightly she let go of the harness with the other and dug around in her pockets. After a moment she pulled her compass out, looping her wrist back under the rope so she could hold on while still holding the compass as she flicked it open. The needle was pointing almost 90 degrees off course. _Shit_ ,she thought, squinting into the driving snow. How the hell was she supposed to tell Talyn which way to go?

Grimacing she let go with her other hand, now only held on by her legs and her wrist wrapped in the ropes. Reaching out she pounded on his shoulder. He flinched, swinging his head back to look at her with one bright green eye, she could feel the vibration from his questioning growl through his back. Grabbing back on with her free hand she unhooked her wrist and held up the compass, then pointed to their right. His eyes widened and he nodded, turning his attention back to the driving wind and snow. Looking down at the compass she watched as their course steadily returned to due south. Frowning as he began to over compensate she pounded on his left shoulder. He leveled out obligingly. Again she noted they were now heading a little to far east.

Sighing in annoyance she pressed hard on his right shoulder, it took a minute for him to figure out what she wanted, but after a moment he leaned to the right. Watching the compass she kept up the pressure until they were on course once more before letting go. Talyn leveled back out now, heading the right way. Patting him on his back she settled back into a more comfortable position, Hedwig still wedged safely underneath.

A loud screech sounded partially in her ear, making both her and Talyn flinch away. He dropped a few feet and glared at the blue dragon that had just dropped into view next to them. "About damn time he turned up," she grumbled. Annoyed she held up the compass, he nodded and settled in behind Talyn, wings rowing hard to keep up with the faster tiger.

Xxx

After five hours of fighting the torturous headwind it finally seemed to relent a bit, the snow beginning to thin out. Kira watched Talyn worriedly, his wings had begun to ice up after the second hour and she'd had to thaw him out mid flight, the ice had kept building up though and now even with the winds slacking off she wasn't sure how he kept himself moving. Soren had fared better in that department, his wings were a bit too flexible to really freeze up, and he had far more experience flying long distance as well.

Glancing down at the compass in her hand she noted they were still on course. Looking out at the expanse of white that still swirled around them relentlessly she had to wonder just how much further it was to the island. As if summoned by her thoughts a beam of light cut through the snow before passing them by. Soren and Talyn both started, looking to their right as the snow continued to thin, the beam of light flared by them again.

 _"Its a light house!"_ Soren hissed excitedly. Kira could feel Talyn practically sag in relief below her. Kira frowned though, glancing down at the compass in her hand then up at the light as it crossed their path once again. Something wasn't right here, the beam from the still out of sight light house was off to their right, the compass was pointing due south. It couldn't be a muggle lighthouse, they were in the middle of the Drake Passage! The only people stupid enough to build anything here were magicals!

Frowning back down at the compass she watched as the needle began to turn and cursed when she realized that the two boys were banking towards the lighthouse. She pressed on Talyn's left shoulder to tell him to turn back but was ignored by the tired teen, eyes narrowed she reached forward and yanked on Talyn's ear hard, he yelped and looked back at her confused. She brandished the compass at him like it was a weapon and pointed back towards their left. He gave her a puzzled look and shot a look at the light before turning back to her confused. Kira sighed and shook her head and pointed left again.

Talyn drooped a bit, but tilted and began to turn back on course, seeing that Soren hadn't noticed the change in course Kira drew her wand and sent a stinging hex at him. Soren screeched in surprise and glared at her. She held up the compass, he blinked, looking outraged. Only a few minutes after they had turned back on course the air seemed to shift.

The wind dropped away completely, leaving them flying through nothing but a gentle flurry. Unnerved they slowed their flight, moving forward cautiously as the sky continued to clear. The ocean began to reappear under them, the black waters extending into the distance. There on the horizon was a mountain. _Looks like I was right,_ she thought smugly as both Talyn and Soren picked up the pace, the end finally in sight.

Twenty minutes later they reached the beach. The surf pounded on the rocks far below as they flew by and circled the island. On the far side of the mountain a white stone building jutted out of the mountain. Two towers framed a large building several stories tall that was built back into the mountain. Small turrets and balconies appeared at seemingly random places from the mountain side and the cliffs below indicating most of the school was built back into the mountain itself.

Between the main buildings' towers an arched doorway stood, a large balcony jutting out below it. Standing near the door were three people. Talyn banked, Soren close behind, and headed for the welcoming party. Talyn braked, back winging as he came over the stone platform and tried to land but his legs refused to take his weight. He all but collapsed on the stone, not even bothering to fold his wings.

Soren landed with a thud next to him, managing to not fall on Talyn before like wise collapsing. Kira sighed and unknotted her hands from the rope harness before hauling herself off the panting tiger. She sat down next to him, her own legs feeling like jello after hours of clinging to Talyn's back.

A light chuckle drew the exhausted teenagers' attention back to the three people waiting in front of them. The women in front was tall with silver hair and electric purple eyes, she was wearing a dark blue robe edged in gold. She smiled, stepping over to them and with a flick of her wrist cast a spell which melted all the snow and ice off them and warmed them all the way down to their bones.

Talyn practically turned into a purring puddle next to Kira at the warmth, the Lamia snorted at him and poked him in the side hard. "Wake up!" she hissed. He sighed and picked his head up to look at the woman. Soren grumbled as well and picked himself up off the floor, managing to sit up on slightly shaking legs. The woman quirked an eyebrow up and seemed to consider them for a long moment before speaking.

"Welcome to Snow Point Academy," she drawled, amused. "Congratulations on being the first to arrive.

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	7. Ignition

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Chapter 7 - Ignition - tobyMac

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"Welcome to Snow Point Academy." She drawled amused. "Congratulations on being the first to arrive." Talyn stared at her in mild surprise, they were first, he was _never_ first to school. He chuckled to himself. This was either a sign of good things to come, or the beginning of the end. Talyn sighed and pulled on his magic tiredly, trying to retake human form. For a long moment nothing happened, then, with all the speed of molasses in the winter his form blurred, slowly bending back to human.

With a groan he flopped onto his back and stared blankly at the sky, every bone and muscle in his body aching, the headmistress smiled faintly. "Perhaps a visit to the infirmary would be in order?" She asked Talyn nodded from his spot on the ground.

"Long as she's got something for the pain." He grumbled with a snort the headmistress waved her hand dismissivly, then with a muttered word and a flash of blue light, all three of them suddenly found themselves in beds in what could only be the infirmary.

 _"The fuck?"_ Soren hissed annoyed before changing back as well, a faint clatter sounded behind a door to their left before a young man, looking about 30ish, with light brown hair and eyes popped into the ward.

"Already?" He asked a bit bemused eyeing the lot of them. "Normally we don't start getting arrivals until late tonight at the earliest." With a shake of his head he snapped out the incantation to a spell Talyn didn't know, the jewels inset into a black bracer on his arm glowing with power. Talyn studied what must have been a focus similar to a wand intently, he could see how much better something like that would be in a lot of situations, not having to worry about holding a wand, or risk dropping it would be a god send. The man hmm'd before darting back into his office and returning with several potions. "Just to double check Lamia, Drakon, and Human yes?" He asked sorting out the different vials. At their confirmation he passed out the different vials. Kira got a light blue one, while Soren and Talyn got yellow and orange respectively. Talyn was really to tired to care at this point though, merely downing his potion without a word, and relaxing into the incredibly comfortable bed as the pain ebbed away.

Xxxxxxx

"So Nicolae what do you think?" The headmistress asked as the three new students vanished, the man leaning against the door hummed thoughtfully.

"Their resourceful but I think getting here first was mostly a case of luck and being to damn stubborn to take their time, Adriana." the headmistress, Adriana, nodded and pulled a crystal out of her pocket studying it intently for a moment before putting it back, the next group was still several hours off.

"That was my thoughts as well, they certainly have promise, but the younger boy especially seems a bit, off somehow." Nicolae nodded.

"His magic felt warped we'll have to look into it." he agreed stepping away from the wall and walking to the edge of the platform, watching the storm rage in the distance.

Xxxxxxx

Talyn was awoken at what felt like the crack of dawn by a pained screech. Sitting up sharply in bed, his entire body protesting the movement, he was greeted by the sight of the healer from before trying to patch up a massive bleeding slash in the side of a thrashing gryphon. The gryphon was a light dusty tan with dark brown markings on its face like a falcon, and barring on its wing tips. The pupils of great golden eyes were blow wide open, the slash, though serious, wasn't bad enough to cause a reaction like this, not unless the gryphon had the pain tolerance of a 2 year old. Something else had to be wrong as well. Not wasting another moment staring in awe at the massive creature, he leapt out of bed, quickly casting an impedimenta on the gryphon. The spell only slowed down movement, rather then stopping it completely, so he figured it would be better then just petrifying the delirious gryphon. Less risk it would tear something trying to move through the spell.

The healer sent him a grateful look and set about stemming the flow of blood from the slash, while Talyn ducked under a frozen wing and crouched by the massive creatures head and continuing to hold the spell steady against the gryphons own magic, which was now struggling against his spell. The healer rapidly sealed the wound now that his patient wasn't dodging his spell work and set about casting more spells over the gryphon. "What happened?" Talyn asked cautiously, not wanting to interrupt the man. The healer frowned heavily.

"It looks like she got bitten by something back on the mainland. Its not enough to kill her, but she needs an antidote if she's going to be coherent for the meeting at lunch. She was alright until she got here then she got blown off the platform and landed on the rocks. Its a miracle she only got that gash. Keep holding her still while I grab the potion she needs." he answered sharply before running over to a large cabinet with glass doors. Yanking one open he quickly riffled through the jars and vials within before coming back with a large vial containing a bright blue potion. Crouching back down next to the gryphons head he carefully cast some kind of spell on the vial before tapping the gryphons shoulder, the vials contents promptly vanished.

Talyn looked blankly at the empty vial. "um...how?" He asked confused, the healer glanced at him puzzled.

"I just spelled the potion into her blood stream, its far easier then trying to shove it down the throat of something that can take you arm off before you blink." He answered drily. Talyn nodded, still uncertain, but unwilling to worry about the odd magic while he was still holding the spell on the gryphon. Ten minutes passed before Talyn thought she might be coming out of it, her eyes were focusing more and she wasn't fighting the spell as much.

"She should be alright now, you can take the spell off." the healer told him a few more minutes later. Talyn obligingly cut the power to the spell, letting it fade away. The tension went out of the gryphons body as it relaxed a bit.

"Sorry about that, but I don't think he could heal you with you thrashing around like that." He explained. The gryphon blinked slowly and nodded. While the healer continued to run diagnostic spells over her.

"it iss alrrright, thankss." She answered a slight hiss to her words. Talyn blinked surprised at how clear the words were with a beak like that, but nodded all the same.

"Not a problem, my names Talyn, whats yours?" He asked trying to distract the gryphon from the still working healer.

"My name iss Verra." She answered. Talyn nodded and glanced back around the room, noting that the beds Kira and Soren had slept in were empty. Well that explains why they hadn't been helping.

"Alright that should do it, do you feel?" Asked the healer pulling them both out of there thoughts. Vera cocked her head to the side and carefully stretched, testing the healed cut in her side.

"A bit ssore but well enough, and my mind is not clouded anymorrre" Vera answered after a moment, Talyn took a step back while pulled herself to her feet.

"So where did everyone else go?" He asked the healer, the man shrugged.

"I sent them down for lunch, you should head down too, you only have another hour if you want to eat before the headmistress comes down to talk to you all."

"And why didn't they wake me up?" Talyn asked mock outraged, the healer rolled his eyes while Vera snickered.

"They tried, you sleep like the dead, Mr. Ashton." was the dry response. Talyn winced slightly embarrassed at that, normally he was an incredibly light sleeper(a side effect of living with the Durslys), for him to not wake up the moment someone moved, he must have been far more tired then he'd thought.

"It was unsurprising really." the healer added, amused. "Those Wrysa drained an incredible amount of power from that shield of yours. It was a crazy idea, but its apparent enough that you have the reserves to back yourself up. But that and then flying across the passage? Is it any wonder nothing short of the end of the world was going to wake you up?" Talyn grumbled but nodded all the same, glancing over at Vera, he blinked confused. The gryphon was staring at him in awed shock.

"You fought Wrrysa?" She asked, amazed, he nodded confused. So what? It was just another of the never ending parade of nasty critters he'd had to deal with, at least this one wasn't one of Hagrids pets. "Wherre they white orrr black?" She demanded excitedly.

"Um...black?" He answered, taken aback at her enthusiasm.

"Even a fully trrained Grryphon couldn't use magic against a Black Wrysa! How could you surrvive doing so?" She asked excitedly, Talyn blinked at her a bit bemused, the healer just chuckled.

"He's got some absurd reserves, thats how." he explained. Vera clacked her beak in thought before nodding definitively.

"You will tell me the storry overr lunch!" She ordered before stalking out the door like she owned the place. Talyn stared after her mystified, the healer snickered at the look on his face.

"This you first time dealing with a gryphon?" He asked amused, at Talyn's nod, he snorted.

"Gryphons naturally have an ego the size of a small country, not that they mean anything by it, thats just the way they are. Best to just agree with her, she won't leave you alone until she gets what she wants." He explained. Talyn sighed, but nodded and headed out the door, as much as he didn't want to be harassed by the excited gryphon, he was hungry.

Xxxxxxxxx

Talyn did his best to tell the curious gryphon what had happened on the beach as they ate. Kira snickering at his side while she and Soren interjected their own little comments when they felt Talyn was down playing his own actions, or how much danger they had been in. The one thing they couldn't agree on was how many Wrysa there had been. Soren said 15, Kira said 6, and Talyn just said it was 'a lot' and didn't want to participate in the argument.

The dinning hall at Snow Point was much more interesting then the dispute as far as he was concerned. The hall was massive easily twice the size of the great hall at Hogwarts, the arched ceiling looked like it was made of glass, but he knew it couldn't have been. He would have spotted a glass roof this size while they were landing if it was real. He liked the effect more then Hogwarts enchanted ceiling, the 'skylights' let in real sunlight, Hogwarts had always muted the light coming though the spells. It may have looked cool, but it just felt fake.

The hall itself was set up with its varied students in mind. Tables and chairs were set up at different heights on the rough white marble floor, and unlike Hogwarts the food didn't appear on the tables. Rather, a buffet of sorts was set up along the right hand wall, with helpers for those who needed someone to carry things back for them. Everything from meatloaf,fruit, whole fish, and half a deer was available. Vera had practically squealed in glee at the sight of the deer and promptly had one of the helpers take it back to their table (she could have carried it herself, but that would have gotten blood all over the floor).

Talyn had then been surprised when she had actually been very neat about eating, rather then just tear into the carcass. Thats not to say it wasn't very bloody, but he hadn't felt the need to edge away from her on account of maybe getting eaten himself.

Over the course of the meal another 6 people had straggled in, one pair practically collapsing at the first table. They had obviously just gotten here. Given who he had arrived with and his new friend Vera, he was still surprised to see that of the other new students only two others that thus far been, or at least appeared, to be human. Kira had only been to happy to tell him what everyone was. So far they had two wolfkin, a species regularly mistaken for werewolves but far from crazy, they looked human but with variously colored wolf ears, claws, and tails. The one girl was covered in odd luminous blue tattoos across her arms and neck, she had dark brown hair and was dressed like she had just walked out of a western. Kira explained that the blue lines were sealing magic meant to control powerful abilities until the user could do it themselves, the blue meant she was a seer.

Next up had been a curious creature that looked a bit like a short bipedal black lizard, he wore a vest of dark blue leather with silver spirals stitched in it. Vera had called him over and the two had a short conversation in some language Talyn couldn't make heads or tails of. Kira said he was a Hertasi. Both they and the gryphons had been created by the same Mage thousands of years ago.

Next had been a group of three ethereally beautiful humans, faye apparently. Kira told him to never except gifts from them. They weren't half as nasty as human mythology painted them, but that doesn't mean you could trust them to not trick you if you weren't paying attention.

So far they had a grand total of 21 students in the hall talking quietly and waiting for noon. "How many students did we start with?" Talyn asked. Kira and Soren shrugged Vera looked thoughtful.

"Most yearrs it iss about 100 orr sso." She finally answered. Talyn stared at her shocked.

"And we've only got about 20 here? Out of 100?" He asked dumbfounded, Vera nodded, Kira sighed unsurprised.

"I think your underestimating how exclusive SnowPoint is. Most years only number about 30 on average." Kira shrugged, Talyn looked at her blankly.

"Indeed I will prrrobably be the only gryphon here."Vera added. "Most of my kind stay in the cities to be taught by our own, but I wished to learn more kinds of magic then what is normally taught, so I came here." Talyn wasn't sure what to think of that, his year at Hogwarts had sure as hell been bigger then 30 students, more like a hundred and change.

Soren sighed, pushing his plate away, and glancing up at the slightly raised platform at the head of the room, a large bronze clock on the wall read 11:35. Talyn glanced down at his his journal and finished a short note to Hermonie telling her he had arrived safety and been the first to arrive, but glossing over the journey itself. A commotion at the doors drew everyone in the rooms attention ten minutes later, a group of five people staggered in. One, a younger looking boy with brilliant blue hair, was being carried by two others. The teen was scowling viciously, his ankle was in a make shift splint, but aside from that, he looked fine.

"Put me down already!" He all but hissed at the two carrying him, they rolled their eyes.

"Stop bitching Nick!" Snapped the black haired, amber eyed teen on the left, they set Nick down roughly at one of the tables near the entrance. The second boy stretched and cracked his back once he was free of the others weight. Light brown hair fell into his face all but hiding his pale green eyes as he observed the other two bickering. Sighing he wandered over to the buffet and snagged a plate leaving the others to their own devices.

Talyn snorted and turned away more interested in the head mistress who had appeared on the dais while his back was turned. Behind her on the wall the clock ticked down drawing ever closer to the deadline of 12:00. Only 2 minutes now.

The last minutes seemed to crawl by, the second hand seemingly moving slower the longer the stared at it. The tooth rattling BONG that shook the room the moment the clock hit noon earned more then a few yelps. The headmistress smiled grimly as the last ring faded away into a hollow silence. "Times up." She said softly, her voice easily heard by everyone in the utter silence.

She studied them thoughtfully her eyes roving across the room, stopping here and there for a moment before moving on. "Let me once more welcome the 26 of you who have arrived here successfully, to Snow Point Academy. I would advise you listen closely to everything I have to say, for I will not repeat myself. For the next week you will be the only students at Snow Point. This grace period should not be taken for granted. I have no doubt many of you have heard about the cut throat and dangerous nature of Snow point." she paused and her smirk gained a sharp edge, before continuing "I am happy to tell you it is completely true, out of everyone here I expect only two thirds of you to make it to graduation, but there are rules, or everyone would be to paranoid to get any studying done." a small amount of tension went out of the group at this. Seeing this headmistress Adriana chuckled darkly. "Don't get your hopes up kids, there are only four places in the school where violence of any kind is _not_ tolerated. These places are the common rooms,dorms, the great hall and the Library. Anyone caught causing trouble will most likely be expelled, or if the professor who catches you isn't feeling particularly merciful, death is also likely. Violence in classrooms is up to the teacher in question, some classes like Potions and Blood magic will get you killed or otherwise seriously inconvenienced by the professor if you start shit, so don't. Outside of that, keep in mind that you can, and no doubt will, be attack anywhere else, the older years will occasionally kill off the competition if they feel your a threat to them understood?" Everyone nodded.

"Now the school year here at snow point lasts from September 19 to June 1st, only first years arrive on the 12th. This week will be taken up by orientation and getting the lot of you settled in your rooms and get your classes picked. Classes at Snow Point are laid out a bit differently here then at most other schools, you will be picking 6 main classes. Every year you are allowed to change you schedule as you learn where your talents lay, students from any year can be found in most classes, some classes will require a test to see if you have the necessary abilities to participate. Aside from those 6 main classes over the course of the year there will be a number of workshops, each lasting anywhere from one to 5 or 6 sessions. These workshops teach any number of things such as making alternative foci to courses on other cultures. Keep an eye on the bulletin board in your dorm for notices." she waived her hand and a packet of papers appeared in front of each of them. "these packets hold a general outline of all the available main classes, you will be given the next two days to pick, some classes require specific abilities. There will be three professors in the hall to test you if you don't know what abilities you may have. I will speak with you all more tomorrow and answer any questions." Adriana waited for a beat before stepping off the dais and leaving the room.

The room remained utterly silent for a long moment after the headmistress was gone before a light rustle of paper broke the silence and all at once everyone was talking. Talyn sighed and looked down at his packed before flipping it open and beginning to read the course descriptions.

The sheer number of classes was staggering. They offered everything from dueling to soul magic and everything in between. The first problem he saw was that he couldn't go straight for the Necromancy, then again, reading the description for its prerequisite Death Magic, he might not need to. It sounded like everything he would ever want to know! He chewed his lip uncertain before jotting the class down on a spare scrap of parchment. Glancing back down the list, he winced. Every class he looked at seemed to have possible major applications for fighting Voldemort! How the hell was he supposed to pick only 6? Talyn groaned softly, this was going to take awhile, where was Hermione when you needed her?

Xxxxxx


	8. Take to the Sky

Chapter 8 - Take to the Skys - Owl City

Xxxxxxxxxx

Talyn sighed and pushed his chair back, it had been four hours, and he now had at least a rough idea of what he wanted to do. Now he just needed to have one of the professors sitting around the room test his magic to make sure he was capable of actually participating. The only classes that needed testing that he had picked were death magic and blood magic so hopefully this wouldn't take to long. Heading across the room towards the professor with blond hair and purple eyes, he had to wonder what the hell the guy was, humans didn't have eyes that color. He Stopped in front of the table where the man was reading an ancient looking book. "So how does this testing work?" He asked to get the man attention, the professor glanced up at him, a distinctly bored expression on his face.

"What classes?" He asked

"Blood magic and Death magic." Talyn answered promptly not wanting the man to get irritated with him, he didn't want a repeat of the never ending bullshit with Snape.

"Hold this for a few seconds, if it changes colors it means you have the potential to use death magic, as long as its some shade of grey your good." The man answered holding out a gray crystal sphere. Talyn took it and nearly dropped it as his hand felt like it was simultaneously freezing and burning, the sphere took only a moment to turn stark black.

"Um..." Talyn tried not to wince, the professor had said grey not black, why did he get the feeling he'd done something he shouldn't have _again_? The professor in question stared at the crystal blankly for a long moment before holding out his hand. Talyn obligingly handed the crystal over, once in the professors hands it lightened to a soft grey. The professor frowned and set it down, it turned clear, then grey once more when he picked it up again. Talyn wanted to sink into the floor when the crystal was held out to him again, taking it his hand burned/froze for a second time before turning black.

"And here I thought it was broken." The man drawled shaking his head before fixing Talyn with a razor sharp look. "have you ever had any near death experiences? He asked, Talyn nodded, fighting the urge to sigh. The professor nodded, chuckling grimly, and took the sphere back. "Well kid, better be carful when you decide to take that class, it won't take much for you to graduate to all the way dead." He answered. Talyn stared at him puzzled.

"What do you mean?" He asked confused. The professor raised and eye brow.

"Don't worry about it, you'll learn what it means in class. But unfortunately with a reaction like _that_ , you will be required to take death magic whether you want to or not." Talyn grimaced, not liking the sound of that, and nodded. The professor studied him for a moment before nodding as well. He snagged a small roll of parchment off the table and unrolled it. Waiting the ends down he waved to the concentric circles and lines that arched across the page. "The runes used in black Blood magic are based greatly on instinct, this is an extremely simple ritual matrix for a first level blood spell, I want you to tell me at least in the vaguest sense what it does. You'll be able to tell if your capable of it. If it just looks like a bunch of squiggles to you, say so, you won't do yourself any good by guessing." Talyn nodded glad to have something to concentrate to take his mind of the professors ominous words on death magic.

He stared at the diagram thoughtfully, eyes tracing the curves and swirls, not entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking for. The deigns looked fluid, each one swirling into the next without any sharp angles or dead ends. "um...er, something to do with speed?" He hazarded tilting his head to the side. "agility?" he asked, the professor raised and eye brow.

"Not bad, you were close. I was half expecting you to give me a detailed synopsis of everything it does after your last test." Talyn gave him a sour look making him laugh. "Oh don't look at me like that, you passed this test as well, not the best first try at nor the worst. This deals with increasing reaction times. So speed and agility aren't bad." He snagged a small sheet of paper and scribbled several things on it in langue Talyn didn't know. "Put this with you class picks when you turn them in tomorrow, its your clearance for death and blood magic." Talyn took the paper and was only to glad to flee back to his friends table

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Hogwarts Sep. 12th

The last week had been, interesting, no doubt about that. Dumbledore was still desperately searching for Harry (and failing miserably). Her journal had been filling up with little notes until yesterday when Harry had told her that the race to the school was about to begin and he wouldn't be calling her until sometime on the 12th if he made it.

She'd been biting her nails all day, Ron had stared at her like she had suddenly announced she was one of Luna's snorkacs when she had distractedly informed him that she didn't have any tranfiguations notes for him to copy. Understandable really, he probably thought the world was ending. Her? Hermonie Granger NOT taking notes? Inconceivable!

Lunch had arrived and she was munching distractedly on an apple when the first sign of trouble came her way. She almost yelped when Mcgonagall tapped her on the shoulder after she failed to hear the professor calling her. She looked up, chagrinned at her obliviousness. "Yes, Professor?" She asked embarrassed. Minerva quirked an eyebrow up before speaking.

"The Headmaster would like to speak with you Miss. Granger, the password is peppermint sticks." Hermonie nodded trying not to show her worry on her face. She _had_ been acting oddly she knew that, but surely it hadn't been bad enough to get the headmasters attention! Did he find out that she had helped Harry run? Theories chased each other back and forth through her head, each more absurd then the last. Standing up as Minerva walked away, she snagged her bag and headed out of the hall.

Ten minutes late she was standing in front of the gargoyle, she hesitated, then called out the password. The gargoyle animated and leapt out of the way revealing the staircase. Heading up Hermonie braced herself for the interrogation she didn't doubt was coming. Reaching up to knock on the inner office door she jumped when the headmaster called out for her to come in. Opening the door uncertainly she stepped into the room. As usual the vast number of clinking and tinging devices filled the room with a sound like wind chimes.

"Wonderful of you to join me Miss. Granger!" Dumbledore announced with a smile, his eyes twinkling brightly. Hermonie wanted to wince. "Tea?" He asked gesturing to the pot on the desk, a steaming cup already sitting, half empty, next to him. Hermonie nodded glad he had offered, she needed something to calm her nerves before she snapped and started throwing curses around. Hermonie would later claim, in her defense, that she hadn't thought the headmaster would have the arrogance to think he could spike her tea with truth potion and get away with it. She didn't notice anything was wrong when she first took a drink, the tea tasted completely normal.

Even as observant as she was she didn't have even a moment to panic before the calm daze of the truth potion washed over her. Dumbledore watched her intently for a long moment before smiling. "Lovely tea isn't it Miss. Granger? Now for the reason I called you here, do you know where exactly Mr. Potter has run off to? I'm most worried about getting him safely back to school. I'm sure you agree that missing anymore school will be terrible for his grades." He finished. Hermonie felt a distant sense of vague offense that the headmaster thought she was that shallow, but that faded as the truth potion continued to take effect, her thoughts turning to Harrys location. Where was harry? Well, he was somewhere in south America or thereabouts, but _exactly_ where..? She opened her mouth to answer.

"I don't know exactly where he is." She answered distantly, the headmaster frowned sharply, he had been sure they were in contact!

"You haven't spoken with him since he ran away?" he asked annoyed.

"No..." and indeed she hadn't spoken to him since he had left. Even under the effects of a truth potion Hermonie was nothing if not exact and to the letter when it came to answering questions. Dumbledore growled softly to himself, ignoring Hermonie for the moment, he had to find that damn boy! He would have bet his favorite socks that Granger knew where the boy had vanished to! But apparently not, he would have to pursue other methods of finding the brat. Tugging a drawer in his desk open he removed a small bottle filled with a soft blue liquid, he sighed, glad he hadn't wasted a stronger potion on the girl. Leaning forward he poured a few drops in Hermonies tea before casting a mild spell to compel her to drink it. Hermonie drank down the rest of the glass the antidote taking quick effect. She blinked confused as the fog of the potion left her mind, wondering what had just happened.

Her conversation with the headmaster seemed oddly distant, as though she had dreamed the whole thing, had he done something? "Miss. Granger?" She snapped her eyes up to look at the ancient wizard.

"Um, yes headmaster was there anything else you needed?" She hazarded, thinking hard about what they had spoken about, the headmaster had asked where harry was hadn't he? But that was all right she had told him she didn't know just as she planned to. She must have just been nervous, it wasn't like she had told him the truth!

"No thats quite all right, you may go. You should have just enough time to reach your Charms class if you hurry." He answered with a smile. Hermonie cursed and grabbed her bag off the floor before tearing out of the office. Dumbledore snorted, honestly that damn girl needed to relax a bit before she ran herself into an early grave.

Xxxxxxxxx

It was late now and she was nervously watching her journal, waiting for it to glow, indicating it held an unread message. The curtains were pulled tightly closed around her bed so no one would comment about her continued odd behavior. Shortly after charms had finished the true magnitude of what had happened in the headmasters office had finally occurred to her. She would have realized sooner but, her memory of the actual conversation was foggy, all she really remembered were her answers. When she hadn't answered anything correctly she hadn't assumed any foul play.

After a moment of righteous fury at the headmaster audacity, the cold reality of the situation had sunk in. There was no way she could tell anyone what Dumbledore had done. No one would ever believe her! She could barely believe it! She had really wanted to believe that the headmaster was at least in part a good person. That maybe he was just going _way_ over the top in his efforts to keep harry safe and 'innocent', but the longer she looked at everything the more she came to the conclusion that either the headmaster had less then honorable intentions in general or he was finally going senile. She would bet her life that 'going senile' wasn't the issue.

The only question now was what was she going to do now that she knew what the headmaster would try to get her to talk, he would believe her for now, but how long until he dosed her with something stronger and tried again on the off chance harry had contacted her later on?

A soft glow distracted her from her thoughts. Snapping her eyes down she saw that the journal was indeed glowing. She quickly snatched it up glad to have a temporary distraction to the unfortunate reality of her situation. Flipping the journal open she quickly turned to the newest message.

_Well, I made it in one piece! It was hard but not as bad as I thought it would be, we had to get past a few creatures including a pair of Roc's. There was also some unauthorized creatures that interfered with the race that apparently eat magic, the headmistress contacted us though and distracted them so we could get away. Kira and Soren say their called Wrysa. Only 26 people have made it here so far, but we were the first to arrive for once! We got here on the second day. I would have messaged you sooner but flying across the ocean in a blizzard was tiring and I slept like a rock. I'm sure you'll be happy to know I already made a new friend as well! Vera is a gryphon, they really tell us nothing at Hogwarts do they? I would have never guessed that gryphons were intelligent or that they could talk! I'm picking my classes right now so ill send you another message when I figure out exactly what I'm talking. I have to go now, times almost up and the headmistress probably won't appreciate me scribbling while she's talking._

_Talyn_

Hermonie put down the journal and stared blankly at the curtains of her bed for a moment before face palming with a groan of frustration. Why the hell did she let him out of her sight? Roc's where class XXXX dangerous magical creatures the only reason they didn't have 5 X's was because they were rare and hadn't killed enough people to warrant it yet! And if _that_ was what her idiotic brother was mentioning out of all the things he had run into, she could be certain that everything else was a whole lot worse! And Wrysa? She had never heard of them before, but anything that _ate_ magic couldn't possibly be good! She would have to look them up in the library tomorrow or the curiosity would kill her.

As for the gryphon...she distinctly remembered reading about them in her care of magical creatures book, it had claimed they were beasts with the ability to occasionally mimic voices like a parrot! If one was a student at Harrys new school though that was doubtful, not that she hadn't discovered by second year that info on magical creatures was suspect at best. She had been ordering books from America since that summer! Far more reliable though difficult to get as most books on magic from outside the country were banned. Her mother had said the rant about 'book burning heathen barbarians' that followed that discovery had been a thing of beauty.

But whatever happened now Harry had at least arrived safely. And with only 26 students in his year class sizes probably wouldn't exceed 5 or 6, the whole school couldn't be more then around 200 students. So training would be far more personalized then Hogwarts and allow for more in depth study. Hermonie shook her head with a faint smile. Maybe in a year or two she could try to go to Snow Point as well. She doubted he parents would allow it though even if her father had been happy to help harry escape the country, not that she had told them the trip was completely unauthorized. Dan had just thought that one of her wizarding friends needed to travel the normal way, and didn't had the slightest clue how to buy a plane ticket (which was true).

A sudden horrible thought occurred to her. What if dumbldore asked her parents if they had seen harry? Her dad wouldn't know any better to not tell the headmaster anything! And her dad knew Harrys final destination in Argentina! Forcing herself to calm down she assured herself that it was unlikely the headmaster would ask them, not when he had dosed her with apparently ineffective truth potion, Harry wouldn't have gone to her parents without her helping him. If she didn't know anything then they wouldn't.

Hermonie groaned softly in aggravation. Why did everything have to be so bloody complicated? Huffing softly she picked up her journal and started writing a short response. No mention was made of the headmaster dosing her with truth potion, or of her other worries. If Harry thought his escape was putting her in danger he would blow his cover in an instant to race to the rescue and she couldn't allow that. Not right now. It wasn't like she was incapable of taking care of herself, she was no firsty any more! She could handle it.

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Adriana stared thoughtfully at the large 3 dimensional map that had yet to be moved back to its room. Why hadn't they seen what was going on right under their damn noses? This was _Snow Point_ , shit like this DIDN'T happen. The door creaked as Nicolae entered. Adriana didn't look up.

"Whats the problem?" He asked curiously, none of the students had started having issues yet, so he saw no reason for the headmistresses tenseness. Adriana didn't even blink.

"I set out a team to deal with those Wrysa, they were unable to find any trace of them, so I took a look through the recordings from last night to try and track where they went." She glanced up at him, her expression completely flat. "Look at the marked recordings for sections 504, 27, and 432." She finally said grimly. Nicolae frowned, but turned to the map and tapped several crystals on the side. And image popped up over the map showing a small clearing with a tent and one of the potential students on watch. He frowned once more and glanced at the read out next to the image. The first night section 27. For a long moment nothing happened. The teen shuddered suddenly and collapsed. A moment later a sleek black form darted from the shadows of the trees and dragged him off. Another glance at the read out showed the teen was merely unconscious, rather then dead. Another 3 forms shot into the tent and dragged out another two, before hauling them away as well.

Nicolae was completely still, staring at the screen in shock. Quick as lightning he changed the recording to the next, then the one after that. 20 minutes later the last recording of section 504, only 4 hours ago, played out showing more of the same. "Adriana?" he asked shakily after a long minute of silence.

"I'v already sent the teams back out to check the sites. Theres no sign that any of those taken are dead. Although the recordings are undamaged, the alarms in the area were drained of all magic. The only reason they didn't get our first arrivals was because that one boy would probably wake up if a mouse sneezed on the other side of a football field, we just happened to be watching that area and saw the flare. Nine potential students taken, none of them confirmed dead. What does that tell you?" she asked flatly. Nicolae could only stare at the map in shock. Six? Had they gotten the other team it would have been 9, this, what the hell was going on?

"Someone must be controlling the Wrysa?" he asked, she shook her head.

"Black Wrysa, they would just absorb any control spell cast on them." She countered, he frowned, not liking where this was going.

"If their not being controlled?" He trailed off, she just smiled grimly.

"They are acting in concert, with enough intelligence and precision to take out the alarms but not the cameras. We would have seen sections of the map go dark if they had, but with no alarms we had no reason to look in those areas. And then they take the children, rather then just draining and killing them. And heres the real kicker, would we have ever thought twice about the disappearances, if those kids hadn't woken up and got our attention, however unintentionally, with that flare?" Adriana looked up from the map with a quirked eyebrow. Nicolae sat down heavily, stunned, the headmistress chuckled darkly, before delivering the final hit. "And how many students do you think have also been lost in this manner over the years?" He snapped his eyes up to her, even more alarmed, she just leaned back smiling grimly. "I went back through the records, checking the old recordings, someone else is working on it now to see just how serious of a problem were dealing with here. I found two incidents last year, and another one the year before that."

"Wrysa aren't supposed to be that smart!" Nicolae hissed, she shrugged and picked up and ancient leather bound book that had rested, unnoticed, on the desk and flipped it open before setting it down in front of him.

"This is a copy of the first ever encounter with Black Wrysa, as recorded by Silver Gryphon, Tadrith. He states that both he and his partner Blade observed a high level of intelligence in the Black Wrysa. Going so far as to disassemble traps and adapt there attack strategies on the spot. Its been ten thousand years since the Mage Wars ended, is it really so odd to consider that they may have gotten even smarter?" she finished. Nicolae stared at the book for a long moment not even bothering to read, he believed her, but still...

"This, is bad."

"Understatement of the century little brother." She drawled at his ashen expression. "understatement of the century"

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	9. Shooting Star

Shooting Star - Owl City

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A sharp whistle drew everyones attention to the doors of the great hall. The chaos had long since died down as students poured over the packets they had been given and were tested for various classes. The massive bronze clock on the wall now read 8pm. Dinner having been devoured an hour earlier. A tall man smirked at them from the door as they all looked over. "Listen up you lot! My name is Terwyn, and that is exactly what you will be calling me, any attempts to make up nicknames will get you hung off the mountain. Now pack up your bags I'm going to be showing you were your common room and the dorms are! You can keep working there if you want so no whining!" Talyn stared at the man, it was the same guy that had given them their compasses. He heard Kira crack her knuckles threateningly next to him, a vicious smile on her face.

"He dies" she hissed, Soren sighed softly.

"He could probably kill you with both hands tied behind his back and blindfolded Kira. Maybe next year?" he asked hopefully. Kira blinked slowly and turned to look at Soren, a malevolent expression on her face, the Drakon smiled hopefully at her while edging slowly away. Talyn just snorted and gathered the scattered scraps of paper he'd been taking notes on, shoving them in the folder before putting it in his backpack and standing up.

"Sometime this century you two?" he asked dryly while walking away, a chuckling Vera at his side. Soren and Kira cursed and scrabbled to grab their own papers as the rest of the group trailed out of the room after the the professor. Talyn shook his head and looked around the hall. The floor here was the same rough white marble as the great hall. Vera would have probably been slipping every other step if it had been polished smooth. Every dozen feet or so a glowing basketball size globe hung from the ceiling, illuminating the black veined white stone. Every so often they would pass a patch of golden rune work etched onto the walls. The swirling concentric rings of symbols seemed to glow softly as they passed.

The building didn't seem to have any discernible layout, the corridor branched and turned without any sign of where they were headed for the 10 minutes it took to reach the dorms. A bonze door nearly 8 feet tall and 6 wide dominated a round room at the end of the hall. Runes and strange swirling lines and circles covered the door, carved deeply into the metal. Terwyn stopped and turned to watch them as they all filed into the small room. It was a tight squeeze with Vera taking up so much room but they managed it.

"Right then this is the entrance to the first year dorms; although they are wards on the door, these wards do NOT keep out your fellow students. They are for security in the event the school is attacked. However there are wards that will attack anyone who starts fighting in dorms, if you absolutely must murder someone take it outside." He grinned a bit viciously, the group exchanged glances a few students were grinning sadistically, one girl looked like she wanted to bolt.

After giving them a moment to think Terwyn turned around and pulled the door open. The room beyond was massive, a domed ceiling stretched up almost 30 feet. A mosaic of black and ruby red glass covered the ceiling in spirals. The room itself was as large as the gym back at Talyn's old elementary school. A fire place made of dark granite dominated the far wall. More of the glowing globes from the hall hung from the ceiling, illuminating the variously sized tables and chairs scattered around the room. The floor was tiled with what looked to be silver flecked black granite, a vast change from the white marble of before. Tapestries covered the walls depicting landscapes and ancient battles, and brought some life to the otherwise darkly colored room.

Talyn found he liked it, it wasn't the headache inducing bright red and gold of the gryffindor common room, but it wasn't like standing in a cave with the globes in the ceiling casting bright light over everything. "Stop staring and get your asses in here!" The professor snapped everyone jumped to obey and filed rapidly into the room. Terwyn snorted and waved to the room. "This is obviously the main common room, the doors you see leading off from here each lead to a two person apartment. You have 5 minutes to pick a roommate or I will be choosing for you!" The group stared at him in surprise, not having been expecting to be rooming with anyone. Talyn cast a wary glance over the group wondering if any off them could be trusted to not murder him when he was sleeping. Soren and Kira were obviously going to be rooming together, they had know each other since they were little, but what about himself?

"Talyn?" He blinked and glanced to his left where Vera still stood, an amused glint in her eyes. "If you wisssh you can room with me?" She inquired he blinked surprised that she had offered, it wasn't like they had known each other for more than a day. He glance around the room where most of his year mates seemed to be having stare downs with everyone else. That was still better than everyone else here though he thought drily. With a wry smile he nodded to Vera.

"Alright, if you don't mind?" He agreed. Vera snorted casting a look at the rest of the group.

"I think we can agrrrree that mosssst of thisss lot would kill usss in ourrr sssleep." She drawled, he nodded, making a note to ward their rooms against theft. Just because they, and the older students for that matter, couldn't kill them didn't mean that they could steal and or sabotage their stuff.

"Times up! Pairs to the front! Ill sort the rest of you out after I'v given this lot their rooms." Terwyn called a few minutes later. Vera and Talyn made their way to the front of the group along with Soren, Kira, the two Wolfkin, and two of the Fae. Terwyn eyed them for a moment before pointing to Kira and Soren. "You're a Drakon right?" He asked nodding to Soren, Soren nodded in return. "Right then, you two to room 5 wait for me I have to key you into some wards on the balcony." They nodded and headed to the door with a bronze number 5 on its surface, he turned back to the group. "You two to room 1" He snapped pointing at the Fae, looking at the Wolfkin he frowned slightly. "Room 2" He said waving them away. His gaze landed on Talyn and Vera finally. "A Gryphon?" he hmm'ed, looking thoughtful. "Room seven. Same as room five wait for me." Vera shot off, excited, Talyn follow far more sedately as Terwyn continued to sort out the other students. Room seven was on the opposite side of the fire place from room 5 where Kira and Soren stood waiting next to the door for Terwyn. The other students that had been assigned room had already vanished inside. Only the four of them waited as the rest slowly vanished, Terwyn continued pairing the remaining students together, he seemed to be intentionally picking the pairs that were glaring at each other the most.

Talyn sighed as Terwyn vanished into room 5 with Soren and Kira, and cast another look around the room, frowning he spotted a small staircase off to the side by the entrance and followed it upwards with his eyes. A small balcony over looked the room, it was over the door so he hadn't seen it when they came in, the railing was solid though preventing him from looking at what was actually up there. "Brats!" Terwyn snapped making him jump and focus back on his immediate surroundings. Vera snickered softly causing him to send her a wounded look.

"Right come on!" They followed the amused man through the door, a short hall only a few feet long led to a modestly size living room, the far wall held a long balcony with no railing, or door for that matter. Better for takeoff and landing he supposed. Terwyn walked up to the edge of the room and waited for them to catch up. "Right sit still while I key you in." Vera nodded and waited while Terwyn muttered to himself casting something while drawing a few glowing symbols in the air. "Right you can see the balcony now, as well as land."

Talyn frowned at the professor for a moment before speaking up. "Are you going to key me in as well?" He asked, Terwyn glanced at him,

"Why? You can go out on the balcony just fine without being keyed in."

"Im an animagus I'd like to be able to go flying as well." He answered with a shrug. Terwyn blinked at him before rolling his eyes.

"Whatever, get over here." He muttered looking faintly irritated. Talyn stepped over and remained still while he was also keyed in. Terwyn stalked off muttering in what sounded like german. Vera clacked her beak amused once the door closed.

"Frreindly issn't he?" He rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand. Flicking it at the door he incanted a powerful locking spell, a mere alohamora wouldn't undo this spell, not that he was delusional enough to think it would keep out anyone determined.

"Very." He agreed looking back over at her. "Know any good locking spells to add to that?" He asked Vera chirped softly in thought before nodding.

"I know a few I will add them." Raising a claw, the gauntlet on her forearm glowed softly, lines of light tracing their way around it as magic flowed through the molded metal. She spoke in the same language she had to speak to the lizard earlier. Two bolts of light, one soft blue the other yellow leapt away from her and hit the door. "That sshould sssuffice forr now." She said thoughtfully.

"Alright. We should come up with something better later, but hopefully that should work for tonight." He agreed. Vera nodded and glanced around the room curiously. Two doors led off from either side of the small living room, each easily large enough for the gryphon to walk though without trouble. The living room itself was about 20 feet square, with the entire far fall taken up by the long balcony. A simple pair of plain tan couches sat in a V in front of a small fire place along the left hand wall. The walls were bare and the same dark grey of the main common room, with the rough black granite on the floor as well. Talyn walked over to the balcony while Vera began investigate the rooms.

The mountain face dropped sharply away below him for several hundred feet, a harsh, cold wind tugging at his cloths in the twilight. The ocean was rippled in to moonlight to his left the snow speckled mountain curving away to his right. A large cove was visible below the waves crashing against black rocks. A few scraggly pine trees clung to the mountain face below him, stunted and twisted by the storms that must batter the island. Staring out over the black ocean he smiled, he was really here, he was really going to do this. Before it hadn't really seemed real, but now, standing here on his first night it finally sunk in. A loud hoot sounded above him, bringing him out of his thoughts, he glanced up and raised an arm so Hedwig could land. "Hello girl. How did you know where I was?" He asked her while carefully scratching the feathers under her chin. Hedwig just chirped and all but melted under the scratching, he figured she was also keyed into the wards since she was tied to him.

"Talyn?" He turned to look at Vera a grin still firmly in place on his face. Vera raised an eye brow at him before chuckling. "If you don't mind I would like you to take the left hand room, the fire place is open on both sides, and fire and feathers are never a good combination." Talyn quirked an eye brow up but nodded.

"Alright." He agreed stepping back inside, the cold wind cut off instantly when he passed the outer walls, a good thing too there didn't seem to be any kind of shutters to go over the door. Hedwig chirped studying the gryphon curiously. Vera cocked her head to the side looking intently at the owl. Hedwig twitched and half flared her wings in surprise. Talyn ducked to avoid getting chromed in the head. Vera trilled before focusing on Talyn while Hedwig calmed down.

"You did not tell me you had a bondbirrrd." she eyed him annoyed. Talyn just blinked at her confused, and shot a look at Hedwig.

"Hu?" His ever intelligent response had Vera frowning.

"Wherrre arre you frrom again?" She asked.

"I never said where I was from." He answered eyeing her warily, as much as he was starting to like her he didn't want to give away his origins.

"You don't have to give me yourrr adrress just the continent you live on." She drawled

"Oh, um Europe." He answered, she hmm'd thoughtfully studying the owl for a long moment.

"You cannot ssspeak to herr corrrect?"

"Should I be able to?" He asked mystified, Vera nodded.

"She is a Tayladrras Bondbirrrd. I sssupposse she could be dessscended from ssome of the wild bondbirrrds if you trruly did not know what ssshe iss. Although... Did you buy herrr?" At his nodded Vera hissed softly clacking her beak.

"I will have to tell the Silverrrs that someone may be stealing bondbirds again. You arrre not at fault, but it would not be the firrst time the Eurropeansss have done thisss, if you wish I will teach you how to speak with her later." Talyn stared at her dumbfounded and shot a look at Hedwig, she stared back and chirped softly. He had always know that Hedwig was different, but what the hell was a Tayladras Bondbird?

"Um...ok? But what exactly does that mean? That she's a bondbird?" he asked hesidantly. Vera blinked before shaking her head in exasperation.

"I sssuppose you wouldn't know, would you? If your from Eurrope." Talyn rolled his eyes but nodded all the same.

"I'm working on I ok? I only got the hell out of there last month." He grumbled Vera snorted.

"Indeed, you will have to read up on history. For now assume that if they said its true, its actually false. As for Bondbirds they are as old as gryphons. They are meant to be far more intelligent then their normal counterparts, as well as having the ability to speak in their partners mind. You have likely never learned to speak to anyone in such a manner so you could not hear her. As I said I will teach you, but not tonight." Vera turned to head into the right hand room. "I need to modify my room a fair bit to make it comfortable. We can continue speaking on this tomorrow if you want?"

"Uh...yeah, thanks Vera!" He called after her. Sighing he glanced back at the other door and headed in to take a look. The bedroom was about 10 feet square with a plain bed pushed up against the far right hand wall. A heavy looking desk sat across from the fireplace, which like its mirror in the main room was made of smooth black granite.

Setting his bag down he pulled out his trunk and enlarged it, rooting through the contents for a book of household charms he had snagged on one of his many trips to Diagon, pulling it free he flipped it open and began looking up spells.

Half an hour later the walls were a pale blue and the desk was larger taking up the entire wall across from the door, the bed looked almost the same only now rather than a simple white quilt it was covered in a deep navy blue one. He would have liked to think that it was just a bit fluffier, but transfiguration had never been his strong suit, he could do it but it just wasn't worth the trouble usually. He still managed to transfigure a pair of socks into a pair of dark blue rugs to cover the cold stone floor. One went in front of the bed the other before the fireplace.

He carefully unshrunk Hedwigs cage and set it on the edge of the desk that butted up next to the bed, the owl hooted softly and took off from his shoulder, landing lightly and surveying the room once before tucking her head under her wing and going to sleep. Talyn smiled faintly before going about unpacking the rest of his trunk. Forget ink and quills, he had gotten normal notebooks and pens this year. No more parchment or spilled ink! The planner Hermonie had forced him to buy also joined the other supplies on the desk, along with his schedule to turn in the next day. Sitting down he flipped the folder open and reviewed his choices once more.

It wasn't until around midnight that he finally decided on what to take, he just had to remind himself that this was going to take time, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. He chose Runic Magic because of the way Hermonie was always going on about her own Rune class at Hogwarts, you could build wards with it, who knew what Snow Points curriculum would add to that. Blood Magic sounded interesting and was wildly different from anything he'd done before, and the summer had uncovered a skill at Potions he would have never thought he had so he threw that in there as well. Combat which seemed to be a combination of DADA and nonmagical fighting was added, and Death Magic a prerequisite to both Soul magic and Necromancy, his whole reason for coming here. Considering he had lived under a rock for most of his life, he also chose a World History class. It was a good layout he decided considering his list. He smirked wondering what Dumbledore would think of the school year he had lined up for himself.

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"Talyn!" Talyn cracked his eyes open and glared at the door, Vera grinned at him from the entrance. "Get up! You sssaid you wissh to fly yessterday! It is a beautiful day, I want to see how good you are!" He stared at her faintly annoyed, but hauled himself out of bed all the same, he couldn't pass up flying.

Vera was all but bouncing when he finally left his room, he shot her an amused look, and with a grin of mischief took a running jump off the balcony without transforming. Vera screeched in surprise, and looked over the side after him horrified. Talyn laughed, the roar of the wind stealing the sound, but only let himself drop for a few dozen feet before changing and snapping his wings open. His shoulders protested the strain, but he held his wings slightly arched, and leveled out a hundred feet or so off the ground. Vera flashed passed him, forcing him to roll out of the way. He let out a roar and rowed his wings, gaining hight before twisting into a dive. He folded his wings and tagged Vera's tail as he whipped past.

The Gryphon gave an outraged screech and tore after him. Talyn grinned to himself and flapped harder, trying to stay ahead of Vera. Gaining more altitude he was almost back up to the hight of their balcony, the gryphon hot on his he flew, keyed into the wards now as was, he could now see the true form of the school that jutted out of the mountain. Gleaming white towers rose out of the mountain side like they had simply sprouted there. Seven in all rose in an arc along the western face of the mountain. Below them in the center was the entrance hall and the balcony they had landed on when they arrived, its two small towers framing the entrance. Everything was almost glowing in the light of the rising sun. Curving around he could see their balcony each tower must have been the dorms for a specific year. Theirs was the far northernmost tower.

He dodged between the mountain and a tower gaining more hight as he caught the wind coming in over the ocean and using it to kite higher, almost flying backwards in the process. He glanced around having lost Vera before instinct screamed at him to move, he folded his left wing and rolled away from the mountain. An explosion of tan feathers flashed past missing by inches. He completed the barrel roll and leveled out to see Vera pulling up a few hundred feet below him, he shook his head and turned back towards the tower. As much fun as playing tag out here was, he was still tried from the flight in, even if it had been the day and a half since they arrived. He flared his wings as he came up to the balcony braking and dropping down to land like he had seen Hedwig do so many time before, he met with only partial success as he failed to get one of his hind feet all the way on the ledge and nearly slid off the side.

He flailed his wings for a moment to regain his balance and pulled his foot up onto solid ground. Snorting at his fantastic landing he stalked into the living room, a clatter on the stone behind him heralded Vera's arrival, he looked back at the grinning gryphon. "You arrre verry fasst!" she congradualted. "but not asss fasst ass me! You turrn betterrr though! That iss the only rreasson I did not catch you!" Talyn smirked at her, the expression no doubt odd on the tigers face. With a light tug on his magic his form blurred back to human.

"If you say so, iv only been able to actually fly for a few months now, Im still figuring everything out. " He answered with a shrug. Vera stared at him dumbfounded.

"A few monthssss? And you fly like _that_?" She demanded, he blinked at her taken aback.

"Um, yeah, I used fly on a broom though, I was pretty good..." Vera just shook her head and cut him off.

"It isss not the same! Flying on one of thosse contraptionss iss nothing like ussing yourrr own wingss!" She argued, he just shrugged.

"Ok? I barely needed any instruction to learn how to fly even then though. The teacher said I was a natural I guess that was true whether I was using a broom or wings." she sighed.

"The morre I learrrn about you Talyn, the strranger you get." she deadpanned Talyn resisted the urge to cringe, he had been hoping to not be the odd one this year, what with being probably the most mundane person attending the school. No such luck.


	10. Onwards!

**Chapter 10: Onwards!**

Talyn sat down at the breakfast table with a smile, he had dropped his list of classes off with a teacher at the door to the great hall so he was all set now. "So I saw you went flying this morning." Kira commented, Talyn grinned and nodded.

"Hell yes, can't keep me out of the air for long and Vera wanted to see how good I am."

"And?"

"Apparently I can turn quicker then she can but she's still faster then me." He explained Kira nodded before taking a bite of sausage.

"Id be more surprised if you were faster." Kira answered with a shrug.

"Oh? Why?" Talyn was honestly puzzled, how could Kira know just at a glance which of them would be outright faster?

"Simple did you see the shape of her wings? And the marks on her face? She a falcon type gryphon, well technically their called Gryfalcons. Even if that is a type of falcon itself." She added looking thoughtful. "But anyways, she gets her speed from the falcon design. There's two basic groups of Gryphons, the broad wings which are eagles and hawk based and the Gryfalcons which are based on a kind of prairie falcon they think. All the gryfalcons are descended from the same ancestor seeing as the mage that created them only created one gryfalcon before his death. Her name was Zhaneel I think. Oddly enough the genetics don't seem to cross with the two breeds as far as the type goes. The chicks are either broad wings or gryfalcons, but the rest of the genetics seem to work the same as normal." She finished just as Vera came up to the table, a floating platter with half a dozen whole salmon on it following her.

"That iss trrrue." She agreed, having heard the tail end of the explanation. The platter landed on the table with a light thud and Vera carefully picked up a fish before swallowing it whole. Once she could talk again she continued. "The only otherr main difference iss a gryphons clawsss." She held out her own hand to demonstrate. "I have shorter claws and longer fingers, this makes it easier to pick things up I can even write if I wish. The broad wings have claws like an eagle, and must have more assistance to get things done." With that she turned her attention back to her breakfast and began snapping up the other five fish. Talyn looked back down at his own plate thoughtfully, he would have to tell Hermione about this! She would no doubt find it fascinating. He paused, a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth, speaking of Hermione he hadn't checked the journal yet! She might have sent a response by now! Quickly swallowing his bite of scrambled eggs, he reached down and dug through his backpack until he found the messenger journal and tugged it out. As he had thought it was glowing softly.

"Why is your book glowing?" Soren asked bemused. Talyn glanced at him, hesitating for a long moment before answering.

"Its a messenger journal, I may have left Europe but I still do have one friend there, I didn't want to lose contact with her and sending Heddwig halfway around the planet with a letter seemed a bit stupid. I told her last night that I had gotten here in one piece, its glowing because she sent a response."

"Is that so?" A voice drawled behind them, making everyone jump. Looking behind them they came face to face with the headmistress herself. She studied Talyn for a long moment before holding out her hand. Talyn winced and handed her the journal hoping she only looked at the most resent entries. Hermione hadn't mentioned his name directly lately but she certainly had before. The headmistress took the journal and flipped it open to the very first page and glanced through it, scanning each entry. One eye brow steadily rose as she looked through everything. Reaching the finally entry she favored Talyn with a thoughtful look and cast several spells on the book before holding it out. Talyn took it back watching her warily.

"I would have preferred if you had entered the school under your original name rather then your new one." She said after a moment making Talyn cringe as she continued on. "But given who you are its understandable that you would wish to avoid that, it certainly explains your rather particular reading in the death magic test, i'll inform your teacher, I'm sure he'll be fascinated." Talyn wanted to groan but nobly refrained, the headmistress smirked seeming to read his thoughts. " As it is you may continue to use the journal but I have put several spells on it to prevent any sensitive information from being taken from it. Your sister will be unable to tell anyone about what she reads from there nor will anyone be able to read the messenger but her. Due try to stay out of trouble Mr. _Ashton_ , I would hate to have to expel you for revealing things about Snow Point that you shouldn't." With that she turned and headed to the large head table that had replaced the dais at some point last night.

Talyn watch her go for a long moment before letting out the breath he'd been holding, and letting his head hit the table with a thud and a groan. Kira and Soren grinned while Vera glanced between Talyn and the Headmistress, no doubt wondering who exactly Talyn was to elicit a response like that. "So...hows your sister then?" Soren asked brightly. Talyn slowly raised one arm, and flipped him off. Kira sniggered at the Drakon's wounded expression.

Talyn sighed and picked his head back up, so much for remaining completely anonymous, he thought annoyed. At the very least the headmistress had chosen not to blow his cover, she would have his undying gratitude for that. He tiredly flipped the journal open and began to read Hermione's message.

X X X

Lunch was barely over and Talyn only halfway to the library when the day decided it wasn't done with him yet. "So what makes you think a pathetic **human** like you have **any** chance of making it here?" Taunted a voice from behind him, Talyn paused with a raised eye brow, and turned to look at the speaker. The other was tall, easily towering a foot of his own (unfortunately) diminutive form. The bright blue hair and matching blue eyes gave it away in instant.

"Oh, Nick wasn't it?" He asked boredly, the teens eyes flashed in suppressed rage.

"Thats Nicolai Jacques to you human!" he spat, baring short fangs at him. Talyn eyed him curiously, wondering what exactly 'Nicky' was.

"Right...and what exactly are you?" He asked drily. Nick smirked.

"Me? I am something far greater then you could ever **hope** to be human! I am a Pantharian! My kind are the Kings of the Jungle!"

"Never heard of you." Talyn deadpanned. Nick stared at him slack jawed for a moment before snarling and lunging. Talyn snapped his wand sharply, having drawn it while the other was distracted, and cast the same shield he had used on the beach.

"Contego!" He snapped, only to blink in shock at Nick who had changed mid jump into a white panther. In hindsight he should have guessed something of that nature was going to happen. Talyn pivoted dragging the shield around as the cat kicked off it and twisted to dive around the side. He toyed for a moment with the idea of changing into tiger form and seeing what the ass thought of that, but thought better of it, Nick probably had **far** more experience fighting in that form. Even if the tiger was bigger he would still probably loose.

With a twist and stab Talyn forced the shield away from himself, using it as a battering ram to send the cat flying down the hall. Quickly dispelling the shield (he really needed to learn to cast more then one spell at a time) he cast one of his newest spells.

"Attero Glaicius!" He snapped moving his wand in a slight arcing swipe from shoulder hight on the left and down to the right. In hindsight he really should have gone with something he'd actually had a chance to practice. The spell worked, if barely, the resulting spikes that shot down the hall to the quickly recovering cat were more like a hail of razor sharp toothpicks then the railroad spikes they were supposed to be. However getting hit with a few dozen tooth picks moving at high speed is still going to hurt no matter how big they were supposed to be.

The panther yowled in pain as the ice needles hit, digging in deeply, he spun around enraged and charged down the hall. "crap." Talyn winced and spun his wand again this time in a perfect circle followed by a an upward flick. "Aranea constrixi!" this time the spell worked far better, a net of sticky white threads burst from his wand catching the cat head on and wrapping around him. Nick yowled in outrage and struggled to bite and claw his way free. "Stupefy!" The cat went limp in his prison.

Talyn eyed him warily, that could have ended VERY badly for him, he knew that well. Stepping around the immobilized and unconscious cat he continued his trek down the hall and to the library. Better read up on more spells, he doubted Nicky would be letting him off that easily a second time.

X X X

The stare was really beginning to bother him. Nick had spent the last hour staring at him silently from across the common room, the creepy part was that he didn't seem to be all that pissed. Instead Talyn felt more like an exotic bug under a microscope.

He had been prepared for a confrontation of some kind when the shapeshifter had turned up about an hour after he had left the library. Even if he couldn't attack him in the common room yelling and threats seemed likely at the least. But no, he just continued to study him. Vera finally broke the faintly uncomfortable silence that had overtaken the study table.

"What happened?" She asked, Talyn glanced up at her from his book.

"He decided to attack me and I knocked him out, lucky shot really." he answered Vera nodded thoughtfully.

"Be careful, he may be trrrying to lull you into a falssse sssensse of ssecurity." she answered after a moment, glancing at Nick. Talyn nodded but he for one wasn't sure about that, he had a very good instinct for when someone wished him harm of some kind, and for whatever reason he wasn't getting that particular vibe from Nick anymore. That could always change but for now he was happy to forget the fight happened unless Nick made an issue of it.

"I will, how are the wards coming?" He answered Vera clacked her beak thoughtfully before shrugging.

"Well enough I think, we need make ssure therre iss an alarrm to alert uss if the wardss fall. We much asssume that _sssomeone_ iss going to get thrrough them, if nothing elsse we musst know if ssomeone has been in the rooms." Talyn nodded, he liked that idea.

"When do we want to cast the first set?" He asked Vera titled her head to the side.

"Tomorrow I think, and we mussst each casst half of them, it will be harderrr to brreak them with differrent kindss of magic being ussed to form different layersss."

"How so?" He asked, puzzled.

"The sssame sspell casst by two people of differrrent speciesss arre subtly differrrent, if makes no rreal differrrence in thingsss like combat magic and sssuch, but wardss rrrequire far more precisssion to break. The varying formsss thereforrr take sslightly differrent approachesss to break without sssetting them off. The idea isss to rrrandomly alternate the layersss with different castersss and hope you trrrip up anyone trrying to get thrrough them." The gryphon explained, Talyn stared at her for a moment a bit startled, he wouldn't have thought the kind of tiny difference she was talking about would make a significant impact!

"Hu." He answered after a moment. Vera sighed and shook her head pityingly.

"What are they _teaching_ you people overrr in Europe?" She asked exasperatedly.

"Not much it would seem..." He deadpanned before pulling out his messenger journal and telling Hermonie about this latest revelation.

X X X

6 days later

The atmosphere in the great hall was almost absurdly tense as the first years waited for the arrival of the older students, the rest of the week had passed without to much more fan fair. Everyone was to busy getting ready for the older students to really pick all that many fights, but now the grace period was over, and the real challenge was about to begin. In light of that all the first years had seemed to come to an unspoken agreement and had clustered themselves at the tables by the wall closest to the doors, better to be next to people on your own level if you were going to having some kind of disagreement, then to find yourself surrounded with nothing but senior students when they suddenly decided they didn't like you.

"How do they even get here?" Asked Soren curiously. " I mean do they have to fly in every year like we did?" Vera shook her head no.

"No, I do not know how it is done, but I know they do not fly here." A loud chime prevented further speculation as the clock reached 7pm and a loud commotion erupted outside the great hall. Everyone exchanged surprised looks as people began to filter into the hall. Looks were thrown their way as the older students filtered into the room. Talyn eyed them a bit bemused, if he had thought his own class was exotic he hadn't seen anything yet. He could barely identify a fourth of the species walking into the room and even that was tentative at best.

A fairly good number, about a third, looked to be more or less humanoid. Extra limbs or odd coloration put them apart, only a few looked almost completely human. They were probably shape shifters of some sort. Of the others, the only ones he could identify were a pair of Centaurs, and another three fey.

It only took about twenty minutes for everyone to get settled before the headmistress appeared on the stage at the front of the room. She looked over the group before smirking.

"Welcome back students, I'm glad to see so many have survived to return this year. This year here at Snow Point will prove to be interesting I'm sure, the second level tracking class and the fourth level combat class will be having a special assignment. Thanks to some _very_ lucky first years we have discovered that a group of Wrysa have been snatching students attempting to reach the school for at least the last 6 years. We lost 6 students to them this year before they were spotted when the final group to be attack set off a flare that we happened to notice. Your teachers will be telling you more about your assignment, but you will be assisting in locating the Wrysa so they can be eliminated." a brief mutter when up from the older students and more looks were shot towards the first years. Adriana waited until the muttering died down before continuing. "you will not be expected to deal with the Wrysa yourselves, but accidents happen which is why the combat class is being assigned as well. Now for a few less dramatic announcements, I hope our vampiric students will actually remember the rules for feeding on other students this year, id hate to have to kill any of you for breaking them again." She smiled dangerously at a someone Talyn couldn't see.

"Lastly the death magic class has the lucky opportunity to study a very rare occurrence, however due to security concerns you will have to sign a contract agreeing to not share the nature of the subject with anyone outside the class without the permission of professor Alexander." Talyn relaxed slightly when she mentioned the contract, for a second there he thought she was going to blow his cover to the class, but a contract he could deal with, who knows maybe they would finally figure out how he had survived all those years ago. "that is all for now, I won't keep you from your meal any longer, you will find you class schedules in your rooms in the morning as usual." with that she left out the same side door she had on the first day.

X X X

(Hogwarts)

"Hermione! I need your notes for herboligy!" Ron whined appearing at her side. Hermione calmly ignored him, she was sitting next to the fire in the common room with a book on advanced wards, and really didn't have time to deal with his idiocy today. She was trying to figure out if there was any information on wards in the library related to Harry's most recent discovery.

As it was Ron had been harassing her all week, she was beginning to think Dumbledore may have put him up to it, trying to get him close to her again incase Harry contacted her. Not that it would work. She just hoped they didn't resort to anything particularly moronic to get her cooperation.

"Hermione?"

"No." She answered flatly, Ron scowled.

"Come on Hermione! I need those notes!"

"Then you should have been paying attention in class and taken your own shouldn't you?" she drawled, Ron huffed.

"But you always let me and Harry copy your notes!" He argued, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I let Harry copy my notes _once_ after the whole SNAFU with the stone, he had a real excuse, your just a lazy little shit so stop asking Weasley." Ron stared at her dumbfounded, his tiny brain apparently having difficulty understanding 'no' no matter how she phrased it.

"But I need the notes!" He finally repeated, "Your my girlfriend your supposed to let me barrow your stuff!" Hermione froze utterly still, the others still in the common room turned to watch, no one had any doubts that this was going to be spectacular. Ron had been steadily digging his grave a little deeper every day, but this was the straw that broke the camels back. After a long moment Hermione calmly closed her book and set it on the couch next to her before turning to look at Ron, her face utterly expressionless.

"Excuse me?" She asked quietly. Ron blinked stupidly at her, not comprehending the danger he was in.

"Hu?"

"Thats what I thought," She answered flatly before whipping her wand out and cutting loose. Within moments the common room had a new rug, a particularly ugly purple and orange monstrosity. Hermione calmly studied her handy work for a moment before picking her book up and continuing to read. Honestly the little shit was never going to learn.

Up in his office Dumbledore frowned at Hermione's actions. He would have thought she would latch back onto her only other friend once given the opportunity. But it would appear he had misjudged Grangers and Weasley's relationship. Without Mr. Potter to hold them together, Granger at least didn't seem to want _anything_ to do with the boy. Which was problematic, the brat was helping him only because he'd been promised money and getting the muggleborn girl as his girlfriend. This was going to take a bit more work, of that he was certain, but it would pay off in the end.

Potter wouldn't be able to resist contacting his friends in some way sooner or later, and he needed to be watching when the time came to get the boy back were he was supposed to be. They couldn't afford anymore delays.

X X X


	11. It's Time

Chapter 11 - It's Time - Imagine Dragons

xxxxxxxxxxx

**BOOM!**

Talyn shrieked in surprised and reflexively snapped a shield over his bed as the room was rocked by an explosion, he could hear Vera screeching across the apartment while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Were they under attack? His sleep fogged mind wondered wildly as the last tremor faded away. No, no, that the noise had been muffled, so the explosion hadn't been near them, but still! Was that their idea of a wake up call here?

Groaning he pried himself out of bed, wand held tightly in his hand, he was glad he had decided to keep it under his pillow or he would probably be trying to dig it out from under his bed right about now. Hesitating he made his way to the bedroom door and listened for a moment before opening it after hearing nothing but Vera cursing is several languages. A quick glance told him that aside from a few books having been knocked off the shelf he had transfigured two days before, nothing seemed to be wrong with the room.

"Vera?" He called, the cursing cut off and within moments Vera was peering out her own door at him.

"You wouldn't happen to be responsible for that bang would you?" She asked sourly, her eyes promising pain. Talyn shook his head no.

"Hell no, any idea what could have happened?" He asked, Vera clacked her beak in thought before shrugging.

"Perhaps some of the upper years couldn't wait to start trying to kill each other?" She asked faintly amused. Talyn snorted and allowed himself to relax a hair before glancing at the clock on the wall. 5:30. Breakfast didn't even start till 7. He shot Vera a grin as something occurred to him.

"Wanna bet that the headmistress is _not_ a morning person?" He asked, Vera stared at him for half a second before chuckling.

"Indeed! Hopefully she will exact some revenge for those of us who do not appreciate being awoken before dawn?" Talyn nodded still amused before sighing.

"Well, might as well get ready, I'm sure as hell not going to be able to go back to sleep after a wake up call like _that_." Vera nodded.

"Indeed, you can go first." She agreed before turning back to her room. Talyn shot a look out at the dark sky beyond the balcony, the sky just beginning to glow on the horizon. Heading back into his room he grabbed a change of cloths before heading back into the living room and opening the door that they had missed at first, hidden in an alcove as it was, the bathroom was small. Well, as small as it could be given that it needed to be big enough for a gryphon. A large pool was sunk into the middle of the room, Vera had explained that it was fed by a spring. They had a similar system in her home, all Talyn really cared about was that he had access to a fantastic hot tub for when he inevitably got the shit beaten out of him and needed to soak out the bruises.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"Well I guess that explains what the blast this morning was from..." Vera commented as they came to a blood spattered section of hallway, half of which was caved in. Talyn could only nod as he eyed the destruction.

"Think its safe enough to squeeze by or should we try and go around?" He asked, Vera studied the half collapsed hall for a moment before shrugging and casting a shield around herself before walking through the rubble strewn across the floor, keeping a close eye on the cracked celling. Talyn stared at her for a moment before sighing and casting his own shield before picking his way across.

"So whats your first class today?" He asked as they neared the great hall.

"I have history and combat today, you?" She answered as they finally rounded the last corner and the large doors of the great hall came into sight.

"Death magic and potions." He answered.

"Why on earth do you want to take _Death magic?"_ Vera asked incredulously Talyn shrugged.

"I have my reasons, Vera. Its not just a passing fancy either, I need to know it." Vera studied him for a moment before nodding slowly.

"I suppose, but please be carful. Magics of that nature are very dangerous even at the best of times."

"Oh I don't doubt _that_." he responded with a laugh. "Ill be carful, don't worry so much."

xxxxxxx

Talyn glanced around in surprise as he entered the potions classroom, it was nothing like the dark, dank dungeon that Hogwarts used. Although windowless, the room was brightly lit by almost a dozen of the glowing balls that lit the rest of the school. The desks were some kind of polished stone, easier to clean he figured, what with spilled potions being unable to seep into the material.

"One student to a table please." Talyn glanced up sharply not having seen anyone else in the room a moment before. Sitting at the desk in front of the room, that only a second ago he had been sure was empty, was a youngish looking woman. She appeared to be human, her hair was a dark brown with a pair of blond stripes running through it, her eyes were a normal dark brown. She smirked at the students puzzled looks and waved at them. "Are you going to sit down, or just stare at me all day?" she asked. A rapid flurry of movement later and the 6 students where in their spots. Talyn glanced around noting that only two of the others were from his year.

One of the faye, and the seer Wolfkin, the professor quirked an eye brow up at the Wolfkin who just grinned. The professor rolled her eyes and looked back at the rest of the class. "My name Is Aldora, I will be teaching you beginners potions. Now I'm sure someone of you are beyond beyond the basics which is what we will be working on today. I will be giving you a series of potion you are to brew, if you think the potion is beyond you abilities do _not_ attempt to create it. The point of this is to help me figure out exactly where you each are in your studies, and I'd like to avoid any explosions on the first day. If you are unable to brew a potion I want you to write at least half a page on why you couldn't. I expect you to turn in those reports along with samples of the potions you finished at the end of class." she flicked her wrist at the board and neat writing appeared on it. On the far side of the board was a list of six potions. Talyn recognized the first 2 and the third sounded vaguely familiar. Next to the list were the instructions for the first two potions. "Ingredients and cauldrons can be found in the draws under your desks. Start now." Aldora sat back down and watched them begin to check the drawers and find out what was where.

Talyn studied the first set of instructions, it was a simple boil cure, the first potion he had ever learned. Reading the instructions through once he stepped back and started checking the drawers. The largest one held two different small cauldrons. He pulled out the basic brass one and set it on the desk before starting his hunt for ingredients. A few minutes later several jars and boxes set beside the cauldron along with several knives and a pestle.

Talyn hesitated eyeing the tools for a minute before casting a detection charm on the cauldron, he had been forced to learn it after years of dealing with Malfoy and his constant sabotaging attempts. The cauldron glowed a faint yellow, he shot a look up at the professor only to see her looking on in approval. So there was more to this test then just if they could follow instructions correctly, he sighed and cast another spell to determine what was on the cauldron before banishing it once he determined it was inert and wouldn't do anything weird because of additional magic. It hadn't been anything dangerous but once water and heat had been added to the cauldron it would have sent up a cloud of gas that would have dyed him yellow for a few days.

Talyn went on and checked all the ingredients and ended up asking the teacher for a different box of cattail root as what he had was slightly rotted. Serval other students had done the same, as they began preparing their ingredients before starting their cauldrons boiling. An outraged screech behind him alerted him to the fact that someone hadn't checked their cauldron first. A glance showed him a now bright yellow faye, he stifled a laugh and went back to his potion. Carefully adding and stirring in all the right places once he had the water at the right temperature.

Twenty minutes later he was looking at a near perfectly brewed boil cure, carefully pouring a dose into a vial for the professor he nearly jumped out of his skin she spoke and turned out to be standing right next to his table. He had been so absorbed in brewing that he hadn't noticed her approach.

"This is very good," Aldora commented studying the potion intently. "Good enough for the hospital wing, ill take the rest of this alright? Unless you'd like to keep it?" Talyn shook his head no, and watched as the potion was poured into a large jar and taken back to the front of the room.

Quickly banishing the rest of the potion in the cauldron he looked up to the next potion and continued. Three more times he had to get different ingredients because what he had was bad, but now on the fourth potion he was sweating, carefully stirring he added a beetle wing every third stir and backed off on the twelfth stir. The potion simmered before turning dark green, it was done. He breathed a sigh of relief. That was it for him he only needed to glance at the instructions for the fifth potion to know he'd be blowing something up if he tried it. Sitting down he pulled out a notebook and started writing, occasionally glancing up at the board to double check the instructions.

A sudden hiss made him look up while simultaneously casting a shield charm, the student in front of him( a strange boy who looked more bird then human) jumped back just in time for his cauldron to boil over while spitting a spray of neon blue liquid across the room. Shields flared up around each desk deflecting the spay away from the other students. Talyn blinked but kept his own spell up just in case. Aldora cursed and cast a multitude of spells on the hissing cauldron, neutralizing the unstable potion.

"Well, that was refreshing." She drawled and eyed the student sprawled in the middle of the room. "Now you get to write me two pages on where exactly you screwed up I expect it on my desk next class." The boy nodded shakily before picking himself up off the floor and approaching his cauldron warily as though expecting it to attack. Talyn considered animating the cauldron for a second before deciding he shouldn't risk pissing off Aldora during class, he remembered what the headmistress had said about fucking around in the potions class.

"Well I suppose we can call it a day there." Aldora called from the front making everyone look up, other then bird boy everyone had given up already and was in the process of writing. "Most of you are more or less moderately good, although Ashton and Mearra are a bit better. Mearra will be moved to the next class up but Ashton will be staying. Your good but you need to go over some of the basics a bit more, there seems to be some rather large holes in your education." Talyn nodded not offended, it was amazing he had done so well even after his review this summer. "Right then, put the rest of your supplies away and leave your papers and test vials on my desk. After that your free to go."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Death magic classroom wasn't as open as the potions room. There were no windows, and it wasn't dark, but it certainly had a sense of gloom to it. Talyn glanced around before picking a seat at the front of the room. He couldn't afford to miss anything in this class, it was his spring board to ending voldamort once and for all. Five other students entered the room over the next few minutes taking seats around the room, no one wanted to sit right next to anyone else, to much chance of getting cursed.

A door at the front of the room creaked open as soon the last one sat down, a rasp of scales on stone heralding the teachers arrival. Talyn frowned slightly studying the creature as he coiled his long black scaled tail up and looked over the class. The professor looked a bit like Kira in her Lamia form, but not only was the color different but so was the shape of his head. He still looked more or less human but he didn't have hair instead a frill of black spines covered his head and ran in a ridge down his back. They seemed to be flexible curving slightly as they draped down over his back. And unlike Kira his scales didn't end at his waist except for a scattering on arms and face, his whole upper body and face was covered in slightly glossy black scales. Like Kira he wore a vest over his chest, his was made of dark grey leather.

"For those of you who are no doubt wondering, I am a Naga." The professor drawled making Talyn wince slightly at having been caught staring. "My name is Alexander Devaran, you may call me Alexander or Professor Devaran. You are of course here to learn Death magic. Do not make the mistake of thinking you will be raising the dead or exploring the other side in this class, that is reserved for the Necromancy class. Here you will be getting a basic grounding in how the soul functions as well as how both living and dead souls behave on the living plane. I will be taking you through several rituals and skills you will need to survive if you wish to continue into Soul magic or Necromancy. These techniques will allow your soul to leave you body unharmed and without dieing, as well as allow you to interact directly with spirits." Alexander paused and glanced around.

"Any questions?" When the class remained silent he continued. " Before we begin, I need you all to sign the contract that was mentioned during the welcoming feast, if you do not wish to do so you will be dropped from the class and can take it next year." The other five students grumbled but signed all the same, far to interested to refuse." Good with that out of the way we need to go over the basics of how the Soul is constructed and how it interacts with the body, beginning with the relation between the soul and the magical core." At this he turned and drew a circle on the board. "Now first off, diagrams aside, the soul is not round contrary to what many think, nor does it exist in a specific spot inside the body. The soul is spread evenly throughout you. Think of your body as a cup, your soul is the water in the cup. It conforms to the shape of the vessel it is held in and fills all of the space inside. Everyone following so far?" He glanced back at them and at their nods he drew another smaller circle inside the first. "Your magical core exists within your soul, and does have the defined shape of a sphere that can normally be found somewhere in the chest, the exact location can vary but it is usually held in or near the heart. This is what gave rise to people thinking ones soul is held there and is a sphere. They would mistake their magical core for their soul."

"A magical core is, essentially, both a converter and a battery. Your core draws in magic around you and changes it slightly to match your soul while also storing it. A person magical power is determined both by how quickly your core can absorb and convert magic and by how much you can store. Theoretically even if it takes you a thousand years to absorb the necessary power if your ability to store it is great enough you could fight even the strongest mages. Its this variation that results in mages and normal humans as well as what are in current times know as squibs. A normal human has a magical core just the same as anyone else, without magic you die, end of story. The difference is that a normal humans core is only capable of converting and storing enough power for them to live. A squib however as the same or greater ability to covert magic as a mage but does not have the ability to hold on to that power. In ancient times the strongest of these people were known as Channels. A Channel if properly trained can absorb and covert massive amounts of raw wild power for other uses. They are not however capable of controlling the power they absorb in any way aside from directing it back out of themselves in a stable form. Mages have both the ability to convert significant amounts of magic as well as store it, its the ability to store the magic that allows the control necessary to cast spells."

"Think of it as the difference between a raging river and damed river. The damed river forms a calm pool that can be used to safely do other things like power a generator." Talyn stared at him for a moment before beginning to scribble madly. That was the first actual explanation he had ever been given for how magic actually worked. Hogwarts tended to simple take a 'its magic it works' view and never bothered to explain how beyond the visible effects. A hour passed in much this way, the teacher sketching out diagrams on the board and explaining the general mechanics of the soul and magic. School had never been this fascinating before, he had thought potions was great but this! About an hour and a half through Alexander gave them a 10 minutes break before continuing into the part of class that'd had him worried all morning.

"Now that we've gone over enough of the basics that you'll have some idea of what your looking at we'll take a quick look at the subject of that contract." Alexander took a look in Talyn's direction before continuing. " Now I'm sure you've heard at least something about the chaos thats been going on in the UK." Various snorts and chuckles sounded around the room. "Yes, yes. I know its humorous, but thanks to the UK's stupidity and their "savor' having a brain and getting the hell out of the country your getting a chance to study how he survived the killing curse." Utter silence met the professors words.

Talyn glanced around noting the looks of shock on everyone's faces. "Mr. Ashton if you could come to the front please." Talyn sighed and got up feeling the eyes of everyone in the classroom on him as he walked. "Although he is currently going by another name to avoid being dragged back to the UK, Mr. Talyn Ashton is actually Harry Potter."

"He's actually a student here?" Catcalled a dark haired teen from the back. "I figured he was just going to be a lab rat for us! Not that it matters, theres no way a Brit is gong to survive here even if he did manage to pass the entrance exam!" Talyn gave the speaker a flat look.

"I guess we'll just have to see won't we?" He answered with a shrug. "The fact that I got the hell out of there would suggest that I'm not quite THAT stupid wouldn't it?" Three of the other students nodded in agreement while giving him calculating looks, the guy in the back snorted.

"Right, 10 bucks says you don't make it 2 weeks." He drawled Talyn rolled his eyes and looked back at Alexander.

"Right then everyone here is familiar with the Avada Kedavra curse yes? Can someone tell me why this curse is fatal?" He asked before calling on the girl on the left near the front.

"The curse is fatal no matter where it hits because it gets caught in a persons magical channels and directed straight to a persons soul and magical core. It then breaks the souls connection to the body causing death." She answered. Alexander nodded calmly.

"Close, the Avada Kedavra does indeed travel through the magical channels to directly access the soul, but if all it did was separate the soul from the body, you would get a living soulless body and a disembodied powerless spirit. What the curse does is first break the connection between the magical core and the body. This is because the soul itself is not anchored very tightly to the body, the magical core however is. This is why a body thats been fed on by a Dementor remains alive for a while before finally failing. The soul is removed but the magical core being more strongly anchored remains and keeps the body alive for a time."

"The killing curse works by breaking that connection between the body and magical core allowing it to throw both the soul and magical core out of the body, killing it instantly without leaving a mark. The true danger of this curse is not that it kills, lots of spells kill. The curse can only be blocked by solid objects not connected to the targets magic. If the curse comes in contact with the targets magic in any way is latches on and is directly along your own magic to your core where it takes effects. It doesn't matter what form that magic takes whether its a spell that intersects with the curse or a shield." Alexander smirked seeing he had them all completely engrossed in his speech, it was always nice to know he could still awe a class on the first day.

"Now this is of course why Mr. Ashton's case is so intriguing. We know the curse didn't just come in contact with wild magic, we know thanks to that scar that it came in physical contact with him and wasn't blocked by anything. So how did he survive?"

"I'm going to cast a spell on Mr. Ashton thats going to scan and project a model of his soul and magical cores current condition, and Ill need one volunteer to allow for a comparison." The same girl who had spoken before raised her hand. Alexander nodded and waved her up.

"Now pay attention, I'm going to cast this on Miss. Fairla first." Turning he traced a glowing rune in the air in front of Fairla, it shimmered for a moment before flashing and changing into a glowing ball. Its was layered, with the outer layer being a soft white the inside being gold and a silver ball inside that, branching off the silver ball were threads of silver that extended through the soul to the outer layer. "Now the white represents the body, the gold is the soul, and the silver is the core and the threads connecting the body and magical core are you magical channels. Now for Mr. Ashton."

Once more the rune was traced in the air it shimmered and flashed before resolving itself into another sphere. The whole class went still, and stared dumbfounded.

"What the fuck?" Muttered someone from the back of the room. The outer layer of the sphere was glowing a deep emerald green, the same color as the killing curse. Inside the gold soul was glowing darkly looking more like polished brass then gold, and the silver magical core was glowing like a fallen star the threads that represented his magical channels started off silver before leeching into bright green halfway to the outer layer. But, stuck on the outside of the sphere embedded in the green outer layer like a malignant leech was a black blob. Tendrils like the roots of a plant were spread out over almost half of the surface, not appearing to have penetrated into the soul very much yet.

Talyn stared at the projections in faint horror, trying to figure out what was going on here, the green seemed easy enough to explain, if not in a comforting way, but what the hell was that black... _thing_ on him?

Xxxxxxxxx


	12. Still Frame

Chapter 12 - Still Frame - Trapt

X X X

Hermione picked at her food rather listlessly. Trying to ignore the chatter going on around her. She had succeeded in avoiding Ron today, she had sat with the first years, and happily answered their many questions and left no room for the irritating red head. Amusingly enough it had taken three days for anyone to notice Ron was missing after she had transfigured him, and another 2 for him to be located and returned to human form.

In her listlessness she didn't catch the smug glint in Dumbledores eyes as she poured out a glass of pumpkin juice. Someone else however, did. Blue eyes narrowed under the table as Crookshanks stared at the headmaster between the tables, he turned to Hermione before he stood up and delicately jumped up on the table. Yelps of outrage sounded as cups were scatters and the pitcher dumped over. The table was stained orange by the spreading puddle of pumpkin juice. Crookshanks hissed and snatched a chunk of chicken from one of the platters before jumping down shaking his paws in irritation. Hermione jumped to her feet apologizing rapidly and vanishing the juice while sending admonishments in the smug cats direction.

Dumbledore barely managed to keep the scowl off his face as the drugged pumpkin juice went flying with the cats jump. He glared at the creature as it dashed off with the bit of chicken. Damn beast, he thought annoyed. It was part Kneazle if he remembered correctly, it had no doubt sensed that something was off with the juice. Kneazle's were irritatingly canny about such things.

Hermione gave crookshanks an exasperated look later after dinner when he jumped up on her bed, purring loudly. "Silly cat. You didn't need to rob the table you know, I would have given you something if you wanted it." Crookshanks cracked an eye open looking faintly amused in that inscrutable way of cats. He tilted his head to the side studying her sleeve before stalking across the blankets and pawing at the wet spot. Hermione studied the Kneazle, puzzled. Glancing at her sleeve she spotted the wet spot at the edge, frowning, she glanced back at the cat. "You didn't really want that piece of chicken, did you?" Crookshanks just continued to stare at her silently. Pulling her wand out of her pocket Hermione cast a detection charm on her sleeve, the wet spot glowed soft blue indicating the presence of some kind of magic. Hermione paled slightly. "Shit." She hissed softly while pulling the robe off and tossing it in the hamper. Hopefully whatever had been in the pumpkin juice couldn't be absorbed through the skin. Pulling on a simple T-shirt she reached into a small box in her trunk and extracted a cat treat feeding it to a very enthusiastic crookshanks. "what would I do without you crook?" she asked with a faint smile, the cat shot her a faintly smug look making her laugh. With a shake of her head she pulled the journal out of its secret compartment in her school bag, it was too important to risk hiding in her trunk.

Hermione stared at the small leather bound journal silently for a long moment wondering if she should tell Harry what had almost happened before deciding against it. He was busy right now. The things he had already started learning were amazing and today was only his first day of actual class! If she said anything he would cut and run off to 'rescue' her, she appreciated the thought, but in the long run she knew that what he was learning was just to important to risk screwing it up now. She slipped the journal back into its spot after making sure there weren't any new messages. Getting up she tugged another robe out of her trunk and swung it on then jogged out of the room, she needed to research more specific detection spells. Especially ones that she could cast surreptitiously.

X X X

Talyn felt rather then saw the professor cast a powerful calming charm at him, he was too busy staring at the black blob, which he realized after a moment was actually pulsing slowly. Talyn twitched starting to hyperventilate even with the powerful calming charm. "What. The. Hell. Is that?" He demanded roughly, not able to tear his eyes away from the sight. Professor Alexander muttered under his breath casting more diagnostic spells on Talyn. "Miss Fairla if you could sit back down." He asked sharply, the girl nodded slowly having a hard time tearing her eyes away from the projection as well as she edged around Talyn and back to her seat.

The professor cursed softly and sighed glancing at the other five students in the room. "Class dismissed I need to talk to the headmistress about this." They nodded, even the dark haired guy from earlier looked concerned. They got up gathering books and notes and filed out of the room. "Mr. Ashton I need you to calm down, you magic is going to start reacting violently if you keep this up." He snapped sharply. Talyn all but snarled at him, the beginnings of true panic edging into his mind. This was _not_ the time to calm down he thought frantically. There was some kind of, kind of _thing_ on him, get it off _get it off GET IT OFF!_

Alexander grimaced and shot another calming charm at the boy while waiting for the headmistress to respond to the alarm he'd set off. Hopefully she would be prompt, but given all the bullshit with trying to track those Wrysa she'd been busy. The door slammed open with a bang only a minute later, Adriana stalked into the room, her purple eyes nearly glowing with restrained power. She frozen staring at the still active diagnostic spell, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "well, well, I knew we were going to be seeing some interesting things out of you Mr. Ashton but this was not quite what I was expecting." she drawled, walking into the room while Alexander cast what must have been his sixth or seventh calming charm on Talyn. " Any ideas as to what it is, Devaran?"

"Some kind of magical leech, its bound itself very effectively into Mr. Ashton's physical form but seems to have only a light hold on his soul. His magic seems to be diverting most of itself to sealing the leech out.

"Can you get rid of it?" Talyn asked tightly, irritated at being ignored. Adriana studied him before looking at the projection again.

"Nothing is ever certain Talyn, and no two cases of soul magic are ever quiet the same, its why the subject is such a difficult one to teach. But given that it doesn't seem to have much of a hold on your soul it would indeed likely be removable yes." A little of the tension went out of Talyn at that statement, but he still couldn't tear his eyes away from the image.

"Where the hell could I have picked something like this up anyway?" Talyn asked after a moment. Adriana looked at him a raised eye brow.

"I should think that should be obvious Talyn. Who do you know who would both practice soul magic and could have exposed you to it?" Talyn flinched hard, he knew, he had just been hoping it could have been something else. Adriana sighed softly and shook her head then stunned Talyn before he could react. Catching him with a levitation spell before he could hit the ground she brought his body over to hover next to her. "I'll put him in the infirmary after I put a few monitoring spells on him. Give him the rest of the day to recover a bit before setting him loose." Devaran nodded, the tip of his tail flicking as he thought.

"I'll have him come in tomorrow after his classes to do a few more diagnostic spells." He paused, a faint wry grinned on his face. "I knew he would be an interesting project for the class, but this isn't quiet what I had in mind." Adriana snorted.

"I think he's going to be an absurd amount of trouble if this is any indication, the first day and something like this already? Its a wonder Britain is still standing."

"At least it will be interesting, yes?" Adriana chuckled and turned to leave, she paused by the door and turned back to the Naga.

"Devaran?"

"Yes?"

"You said that the leech is draining most of Mr. Ashton's magic to keep it contained and from controlling him, correct?"

"Indeed." Adriana gave the unconscious teen a speculative look.

"You of course know that the school registers the general power levels of everyone present on the grounds yes?

"Of course?" He glanced at her a bit puzzled.

"When Mr. Ashton first arrived his power levels were registered as high Master class, potently Adept Class." The Naga gave her an incredulous look.

"Thats impossible! Given how powerful the leech is that boy can't be operating at more them 5 percent of his true power! Probably less! How he even managed to _get_ here is a mystery!"

"Less then five percent, Devaran?" she shot him a smirk, the Naga scowled. "and high level master class to boot even then..." Devaran's eyes widened slightly at what the Headmistress was implying.

"You can't be serious! The scanner probably read his total potential without taking the leech into consideration!"

"But he still made it here, didn't he?" She cut in, a faintly amused look on her face as she turned to leave, the unconscious teen floating at her side.

"But!"

"Its always the unassuming ones," she answered sardonically cutting him off as she left the room, the floating teen in tow.

X X X

Adriana studied the unconscious boy on the hospital bed, she had of course done some digging when she had found out who he was. The things she had found had been worrying to say the least, and if they were to be taken at all seriously then this was just another day in the life for Talyn. She grimaced, thinking about the farce that was Hogwarts. Snow point may be absurdly dangerous by the rest of the worlds standards. But it was a danger every student entered into having at least some idea of what they were setting themselves up for. And even then the dangers were either their own or from the other students. They didn't have dark mages battering down the doors every year, or dementors prowling the grounds. Even if they did it wouldn't be left to the students to deal with, not without excessive back up at least. This brat had been left to deal with situations that would have ended many a fully trained mage. The smartest thing the boy had ever done had been to get out of Europe.

With a shake of her head at the absurdity of it all she countered her stunning spell. Talyn twitched slightly and groaned. "Ashton?" She asked sharply, the boy blinked owlishly before focusing on her. He eyed her for a long moment before sighing.

"Why can't it ever just be a bad dream?" He grumbled earning a dark smile from the headmistress.

"Because that would be _far_ to easy, Talyn." She shrugged at the sour look she got in return. "your to meet with professor Devaran tomorrow after your last class, he wishes to try a few other diagnostic charms to determining the nature of the leech on your soul." Talyn shuddered at the memory of that, that _thing._ He jumped when a potion vial appeared in front of his face. Adriana raised an eye brow and continue to hold the vial out. Talyn took it wordlessly and downed it, recognizing calming potion by color alone. He felt his panic dull, the great thing about calming potions was that they did their job without fuzzing up your head.

"Thanks."he said quietly, the headmistress nodded.

"Id advise you brew a few more doses, no doubt you'll need them. Aldora will still have the potions labs open for another 4 hours before dinner."

"Alright… can I use the supplies there or do I need to use my own because its not actually class related?"

"For something that simple you can use our ingredients. Theres a common supply cabinet down there, you can use anything in it. If you can't find it in there you have to get ahold of it yourself." At Talyn's nod she stood up. "you can remain here for another hour if you want. I expect I will be seeing you quiet a bit, I doubt your situation will end quietly." With that she turned and left. Talyn stared after her for a few moments before hauling himself out of the bed and making his way down to the potion labs.

X X X

"Back so soon?" Talyn almost jumped at the voice behind him, spinning around he found Professor Aldora smirking down at him.

"Uh.. Yeah I need to,"

"Brew a calming potion, yes." She finished, Talyn starred at her blankly.

"Can you..?"

"Read your mind? Of course not." She answered, a grin on her face. Talyn wasn't sure what to think about that.

"Then don't worry about it." She drawled, smirking. "the common supply cabinet is over there." She continued pointing off to the front of the classroom. "the ingredients under the desks are for class only. But feel free to use and of the cauldrons or tools there, alright?" Talyn nodded slowly still unsure of the professor. If she wasn't reading his mind then what the hell _had_ she been doing?

"Um, thanks." He answered after a moment, she nodded and headed back out of the room leaving him to his own devices. An hour later he was almost done with the potion when Aldora returned.

"If you add an extra two chamomile flowers in the next step you'll increase the potency of the potion by almost 20 percent." She pointed out thoughtfully. Talyn frowned before nodding.

"Thanks, I'm probably going to need it." He agreed, she laughed.

"No doubts there Mr. Ashton. Your friend Vera was worried about you when you didn't meet her back at your rooms after the death magic class. I told her where you were. She expects a full explanation later, you'll probably have to tell them who you are if you want it to make any sense." Talyn froze, faintly horrified at the idea of having to tell them who he was, he liked being just another person! What if they went all fan-girly on him?

"They won't." Aldora said calmly snagging the dropper of lavender oil and adding the necessary 3 drops to the potion before it was ruined. Talyn blinked rapidly, shaking himself out of his momentary panic.

"How do you do that?" he asked suddenly glaring at her, mildly annoyed.

"What, make a potion?" she shot back.

"No! The whole mind reading thing!"

"Its not mind reading, Talyn." she answered amused.

"Its creepy." He growled, she nodded.

"Most people think so, but you don't really need to worry about it. I'm sure you'll figure it out at some point, its certainly not what it seems." He starred at her for a long moment before sighing and turning back to the potion to add the chamomile flowers.

"If you say so."

X X X

"Therrrre you arre!" Vera's crest feathers were fully flared up, making her look like she had a mohawk as she glared at him. "wherrre have you been! You didn't come back to the common rrroom afterrr classs and then that potionsss professssor turned up and sssaid you had been in the hospital wing! And that you needed to go make a calming potion!" Talyn winced at the shear volume gryphons were capable of, glad there were silencing charms on the rooms.

"Sorry Vera, something came up." The gryphon stared at him utterly silent for a long moment, her eyes narrowed.

"If we arrre to look out forrr each other as we agrrreed I must know wherrre you plan to be so I know if I need to rrrescue you." Talyn winced slightly, she had a point.

"The diagnostic spell in death magic turned up some really weird crap with my soul, the headmistress was called and they knocked me out when I started freaking out. Thats why I needed the calming potion and why I was in the hospital wing. I wasn't actually hurt." Vera gave him a worried look, her feathers beginning to smooth down.

"You do not seem the type to panic overrr nothing Talyn. What did they find?" she asked carefully. Talyn was quiet for a long moment.

"Apparently theres some kind of magical leech or something attached to my soul, its draining away my magic. I'm supposed to head back to professor Devaran tomorrow so he can do some more diagnostic work." He finished with a shrug. Vera stared at him.

"Its, um, not contagioussss or anything. Is it?" she asked after a moment. Talyn snorted.

"Of course not!" He deadpanned before launching a stinging hex at the gryphon, and dove for the balcony as Vera yelped and snapped at him.

"GET BACK HERE BRRRAT!" she screeched lunging after him as he dropped of the edge and transformed.

X X X

Luna hummed softly to herself watching the tiny creatures, invisible to everyone else, dart around the forest. She let her toes sink into the soil and let her magic connect to the earth, listening to the near incomprehensible voice that threaded through the ground. She nodded after several long hours, and patted the unicorn that had laid down next to her to keep her safe while she was listening, not that the creatures of the forest would hurt her. They knew better.

It wasn't time yet, she thought sadly, thinking of Harry. Hidden so far away, yet so close to exactly where he needed to be. He didn't know how to listen yet, but he would learn, he had to.

X X X


	13. Chronicle of Hero's

Chapter 13 - Chronicle of Hero's - Epic Score

X X X

"Runic Magic" The sudden voice made everyone jump. Talyn barely blinked, his most recent does of calming potion was still very strong. The classroom door closed with a sharp snap and a blur of blue and white flitted to the front of the room. A sprite now hovered in front of the desk, he wings beating rapidly like a humming bird to keep her in the air. She was only about three and a half feet tall with long white hair and thin limbs. Soft mint green eyes studied them as she settled onto the desk, her sun dress tumbling over her feet in a wave of gauzy light blue.

"My name is Salera, I will be teaching you runic magic. I would ask that you make sure you are extra carful when taking notes in this class so that you don't accidentally write out active runes. Doing so will at the least result in a minor explosion when they short out. This is only the introductory class so we will be first going over several of the basic runic languages, before learning a number of basic sets you will need get working rune spells. We will also be touching on warding before the end of the year." She stopped there and looked the class over curiously. "Any questions?" she called, silence greeted her, she grinned. "Well then, lets get started."

X X X

Talyn rubbed his eyes tiredly as he wandered into the history classroom with five minutes to spare. Rune magic had certainly rung his poor mind dry. Salera had taken them on a whirlwind tour of all the languages of runes. So much for thinking there were only two like Hermione had studied at Hogwarts. Apparently anything could be used as runes is you knew what you were doing and could charge the symbols with magic, it was just a matter of what worked best with your magic. By definition runes were magically charged symbols that meant something to the maker. Most people only found one or maybe two languages that worked for them, the very best made up their own languages and systems to direct the magic. That was where a number of the oldest runic languages came from, someone had invented their own and then taught it to others.

"Good, you're all here." Talyn blinked shaking himself out of his thoughts, and glanced up at the front of the room before doing a double take. A sphinx stood watching them all with amusement. She was easily as tall as a human with light golden tan hair and a tawny lionesses body. "My name is Anisa" She told them quietly before beginning "History, is a strange thing to try to tell. For no two people ever see it the same way. Tales are warped by the exaggerations of those who recorded them, and by those who wish to make themselves seen as the better man to those who come after." She paused and surveyed the room and then a shimmering ball appeared in the air before her with seemingly no action on her part, it blurred changing colors rapidly for a moment before settling on the image of a massive tower surrounded by mountains. It looked like it had been sculpted out of clay rather then built of stone. "The story of magic as it is now and how it became that way begins some 10,000 years ago, with the last great Mage War. Little is remembered anymore about the war itself, only a few images and the tale of how the war ended as well as the names of those two great Sorcerer Adepts. The Dark Adept Ma'ar and Urtho the Mage of Silence." The sphere shifted showing two images. One, a scowling man wearing a hood, and the other an older man with silver hair, smiling faintly.

"The war was terrible and lasted many years with a loss of life that compares only to the two recent world wars. It would have likely continued for many more had Ma'ar not managed to slip an assassin through to Urtho. Although the healers were able to slow the progress of the poison it was known that there was no antidote and so Urtho evacuated the great tower and the surrounding army even as he lay dieing, for built into his tower was a failsafe. With his death a device would undo every spell within the tower and surrounding area. Wishing that his people might not have to fight Ma'ar without his help he entrusted a weapon much like the one in his own tower to the Black Gryphon Skandranon." The image changed to show a massive jet black gryphon far bigger then the relatively dainty Vera.

"Skandranon knew that Urtho didn't mean for him to use the weapon right then, but he would not stand for the man that created him dieing without knowing that the threat to them was gone. He took the weapon and used a gate to enter Ma'ar palace. Something Ma'ar had never warded against for he believed no one was crazy enough to try it. There, Skandranon found and freed two other gryphons that had been captured, and all three snuck through the secret corridors of the ancient palace to the throne room before bursting out of the passage." The entire class sat, utterly rapt as the story played out in the projection, it was obvious that is wasn't a recording in this case, but that didn't seem to matter as they watched. Anisa smiled knowingly before continuing. "As they burst into the room they came upon a shocking sight, a gate, open in the throne room. And visible, sitting on the other side looking for all the world as though he wasn't minutes from dieing, was Urtho."

"As Skandranon tells it, Urtho's plan had been to lure Ma'ar through the gate just as he died. Trapping him with no way to escape before the failsafe activated. Skandranon wasted no time questioning their good luck and activated the device he carried before hurling it at the shocked Ma'ar while the other two gryphons ran for the portal Skandranon following quickly before Ma'ar could recover from his shock. The device activated, and Ma'ar and his palace were destroyed. Every spell undone and the magic held therein set loose. Urtho, though weakened and mere minutes from death, was still able to change the destination of the gate and Skandranon and the two others escaped the tower to those who would eventually create the city of White Gryphon." Anisa paused as the sphere faded away still holding the image of Skandranon as he came through the collapsing gate, bleached snow white by the incredible power being exerted by the damaged portal. "And here we come to what puts this war apart from all others that had ever been fought and all that would follow." Talyn straightened the notes he had been intending to take long forgotten.

"Most would think that mere mortals such as ourselves cannot alter the nature of magic, and this thought would be true, to an extent. If only one of Urtho's devices had activated that day no doubt the results would have still been terrible, for the magics wrought by a sorcerer Adept are almost unthinkably powerful. But for **two** such devices to be activated, mere minutes apart, and in places of equal power... There is good reason the event was forever know as, The Cataclysm." That day Magic was warped, as was everything it touched. The lands that were greatest effected became a great forest, the magic twisting the trees and creatures within. This is where many of the magical beings of today come from. Created by wild magic during the years that followed. Part of Urtho's army, the clans of the Kaled'a'inwho became the Tayledras swore an oath to their goddess Kal'enel to cleanse these warped lands. A task that took them nearly 2000 years. Now although bent and warped that day, magic still remained mostly as it had been. Perhaps a few spells didn't work quiet as they had, but things remained almost the same. It was an event that occurred 2000 years later as the Tayledras neared the end of their duty that the true extent of the damage caused by The Cataclysm became clear. Time. The Cataclysm had been so powerful that not only had it warped the world but it had also warped time. Reflecting through the eons to that age 2000 years later. We were lucky, very lucky, a second Cataclysm was averted, though barely. But the damage was still done. The land was saved, but Magic as it was, broke. The many ways in which magic changed that day are still being discovered even now, 8000 years later." Anisa stopped here with a sigh and looked out over the class.

"I will end there for the day, does anyone have any questions?" She asked, everyone blinked, trying to shake themselves out of the slight trance the story had put them in. Anisa waited patiently for them to collect themselves. Talyn hesitated before raising his hand.

"Yes Ashton?" she asked.

"When you said 'magic broke' what do you mean exactly? How can magic itself 'brake'?" He asked hesitantly, hoping he didn't sound like an idiot. Anisa smiled.

"A very good question to ask. The simplest answer would be that we just don't know. What exactly it was in magic that broke has never been determined. Only that somehow the Cataclysm did _something_ , it changed something on a fundamental level. The way magic flowed over the surface of the world was changed, as was the way it worked. For instance long ago _no one_ used focuses of any kind, it wasn't needed. Magic as it is now is more chaotic, we require a focus to help tame that wild magic and make it work in a reasonable way. This is why focus-less magic is so difficult. It takes a strong will to tame magic without some kind of help."

X X X

Talyn knocked cautiously on Devaran's office door wondering just what the Naga had planned for him. History had finished only an hour before and his head was still spinning with everything he had learned. "Come in!" Devaran called sharply. Talyn pushed the door open and stepped inside. Devaran was sitting behind his desk, several scrolls and dusty looking books arrayed in front of him. "Ah, good your here." He rolled up the small scroll he'd been reading and put it in the desk. "If you want to take another dose of your potion I'd advise you do so if you want it to have taken effect in time to be useful."

"I already did." Talyn answered, Devaran nodded and slithered out from behind his desk.

"We're going to be using one of the ritual rooms, it will limit outside interference in the detection spells I want to use." He explained, Talyn nodded and stepped out of the way as the professor slithered out of the room. They didn't go far, just down the hall a bit to a stone room about 15 feet square. The floor was a dizzying swirl of different colored stones inlaid into the ground. "Sit down in the center." Devaran called as he started scribbling something around the edges of the pattern with what looked like a stick of chalk. Talyn did as ordered, watching as Devaran continued to scribble out runes for a few minutes before finishing. "I'm going to recast the monitoring spell from yesterday, please try to contain your reactions, a repeat of yesterday will interfere with the runes." He explained, Talyn nodded warily and managed to only cringe at the sight of the pulsing black blob attached to his soul as the projection flickered into existence. Devaran began tracing out a symbol in the air and the image changed, a wild array of colors chasing across the projection.

"Interesting." Devaran muttered and cast a spell in Talyn's direction, he flinched as it hit, feeling like ice had just sunk through his skin. The projection flickered and a sharp pain shot through his scar. Talyn grimaced in discomfort. Devaran hummed and shot two more spells at Talyn, the first gained no reaction but the second made the blob in the projection writhe, Talyn shuddered feeling the scar split open and begin to bleed sluggishly while dull pain pounded through his head. "Believe it or not, a physical reaction like that is actually a good thing, it means that its is anchored mostly in your physical form rather then your soul." Devaran explained while he waited for both the blob and Talyn to stop twitching in pain. "Now sit as still as possible, I'm going to activated the runes, if you move to much it might backfire and incinerate you."

Talyn stared at him a bit wide eyed at that pronouncement. Devaran didn't bother saying anything else to Talyn as with a single sharp word the runes began to glow with dim blue light. Talyn stayed perfectly still while glowering at the professor, he did _not_ appreciate not being warned about this ahead of time. Talyn winced as his scar started to twinge sharply, it felt rather like it was being poked repeatedly with a sharp stick. The projection wavered the colors of the surface shifting, the silver representing his magic brightened slightly as several arcs of green tinged silver magic flared outward. Light sparked around Talyn as the magic came slightly into the visible spectrum before being reabsorbed.

"Well, I was expecting to have to be the barer of bad news, but it would seem whoever made this did not do so intentionally especially given what it is, that should make its removal relatively simple."

"You figured out what it is?" Talyn asked hopefully. Devaran hesitated frowning at him before answering.

"Yes, its a horcrux, a very badly made one. Almost absurdly badly made, it has no protections whatsoever on it."

"And a horcrux is?" Talyn repeated.

"A horcrux is a piece of a persons soul, usually placed in a heavily protected object that is _supposed_ to make the user, although not truly immortal, extremely difficult to kill. This one wasn't likely created intentionally. Although a large piece of soul, it has no protections and the magic from the killing curse you took as a child has damaged it. There is something else as well..." Talyn blinked a tinge of rage and disgust breaking through the powerful calming potion at the fact that he had a piece of Voldemort's _soul_ in him, he focused back on Devaran wondering what else could possibly be wrong.

"What?" He asked tiredly, Devaran grinned wryly.

"You wouldn't happen to have nearly gotten hit with any other killing curse recently, would you? Or tried, apparently successfully, to block one?" Talyn stared at him blankly at this. The only time he had would have... Been.. The, graveyard... Talyn's thoughts screeched to a halt as what Farla had said yesterday about the killing curse flashed back to him. It didn't have to hit you directly, if it hit your magic it worked just as well.

Priori Incantatem, the spell Voldemort had used had been a killing curse. Even if the magic seemed to fight back and forth. Because of the nature of the spell it should have passed straight through and killed him either way! Devaran chuckled at the look on his face.

"I'll take that as a yes then," He deadpanned with a smile. "Well I am happy to inform you that your record with the killing curse is currently 2 to 0, not bad for a curse no one has every survived before." Talyn growled softly in aggravation, but Devaran plowed on ahead. "It would also seem that your apparent immunity to the curse, which you seem to be absorbing, has not been imparted to the horcrux. Your last foray into near death appears to have seriously damaged it, being not quiet alive, it can't be killed so easily but the curse did weaken it greatly. I think if we act in the next few weeks, before it can regain its strength, it could be removed without to much trouble." Talyn stared at him for a long moment before finally speaking.

"Are you saying..." He asked warily.

"Yes, yes I am. No annoying theatric should be necessary to remove the horcrux, it will take a fair bit of power and ill need to speak with several other teachers and the headmistress to decided exactly how it should be done, but it shouldn't be very difficult at all." Devaran seemed rather pleased with the outcome, but Talyn wasn't so happy. _Nothing_ was every that easy, not for him, the only question was when and where the shit was going to hit the fan.

X X X


	14. The Sign

Chapter14 - The Sign - ace of base

_Sep. 18th - Harry_

_Well the first week isn't even over yet and fate has already sucker punched me this year. I can only imagine what would have happened if I hadn't come to snow point, we would have never known what Voldemort did to me, even if it was unintentional. We had death magic class yesterday, I should have told you then, but the teacher wasn't sure what the blob attached to my soul actually was at that point so I wanted to wait until he could run a few other checks. As it is, apparently Voldemort accidentally stuck a chunk of his soul, called a horcrux, in my own soul when he tried to kill me the first time. Professor Devaran says it should be pretty easy to remove because it has no protections on it like most horcrux's would. However I think we both know how well thats likely to work out. I'm currently dosed up on high power calming potions right now, think Ron's reaction to spiders and you'll have an idea of my feelings about the damn thing._

_Moreover, apparently it got damaged during the graveyard incident so it's even weaker. I never even thought about it before but Voldemort hit me with a second killing curse that night. When we did priori incantium he used a killing curse, but you can't block it. Even if the magic linked the curse still went through my magic and hit me. Apparently I seem to be absorbing the death magic from the curse and combining it with my own. 3 guesses how often that's happened before._

_Devaran says he needs to talk to the headmistress about when they can take it out, I still don't understand why their willing to help me like this._

Hermione was still for a long moment after she read Harry's most recent note, then, with all the dignity she could muster, she facepalmed. "Two to zero and the crowd goes wild." she grumbled tiredly. Crookshanks watched her, seemingly amused at her aggravation, the cat yawned and looked out the window at the setting sun. Hermione snorted and set the journal down. How the hell did he keep doing it? His luck had to run out someday, didn't it?

Hermione sighed, and got up from the bed, casting several spells to double check her things for tracking or compulsion spells. Everything was clean, ever since Crookshanks had rather viciously attacked her pillow the day before, only for her to find it laced with a compulsion spell, she had checked everything before she touched it. She refused to give Harry away. The down side was it was going to become pretty obvious after a while that she was avoiding the spells and not just doing so by chance, she sighed, this was going to get bad.

Crookshanks watched Hermione intently as she left the room, how someone could read as much as her, and yet never once pick up a book on Kneazel's was a bit mystifying. Perhaps if she had she'd notice that her Kneazel was just a bit too perceptive even for one of those clever creatures. The 'Kneazel' smirked faintly and yawned showing off his razor sharp teeth, in the next few days he decided. He would have to reveal his true nature to the girl, he couldn't leave it any longer, and too much was at stake. He would have to go talk to his contact in the castle. He shuddered to think what would befall the world if the boy was recaptured, his Lord had told him just what was at stake, and there was no room for a single screw up.

XXX

(Sep 19th)

Talyn waved goodbye at Vera as he turned down a dark hallway while she continued on to a focus less magic class. He on the other hand had blood magic to get to. He was a little wary of what they might be doing. After all his only real experiences with blood magic was Tom's resurrection ritual and the ward Dumbledore had supposedly cast on his home. Then again the test to get in and the actual description had left him curious.

Talyn eyed the heavy stone walls as he headed deep into the mountain. It wasn't so much enclosed spaces that bothered him as knowing he had a mountain hanging over him. Glancing ahead he spotted the door to the blood magic wing. Embossed on the surface was a short dagger with a drop of blood hanging from the tip. Radiating out from the doorframe were curling sequences of runes that glowed faintly gold and white.

"This place is built like a bomb shelter" muttered someone behind him. Talyn managed not flinch and turned to look behind him as calmly as possible having not heard or sensed anyone behind him the entire way down the hall. The sandy head teen that had arrived with Nick glanced at him. "Nice to see someone else from our year is going to be here"

"Um yeah, what was your name?" Talyn asked warily.

"Chill out, Ashton." He answered with an eye roll. "I'm not in this damn school to off people, too much trouble, but this is the only school that teaches blood magic." He shrugged. "And my name is Ran," he added. Talyn nodded slowly and turned back to open the door ready to cast a shield behind himself if necessary. The door made no noise as it swung open to show another hall, the classroom they wanted was the fifth door on the left.

The classroom was brightly lit and spotless; somehow it just stuck Talyn as decidedly odd. He figured that this far into the mountain he's been expecting something like Snapes labs or something. Shrugging he picked a seat midway up the room. Ran promptly sat down next to him, smirking faintly at Talyns glower. Within five minutes the class had another 10 students. All of whom were eyeing each other. Talyn refrained from sighing in annoyance and wondered if everyone was always this paranoid or if it was just first week jitters.

A sharp snap made everyone jump. Looking towards the door they spotted who could only be the professor. She had straight black hair and strange yellow eyes. She looked over the room and grinned. Talyn blinked seeing the long white fangs in her mouth. What the hell was she? Not human, he could see that, but he'd seen half a dozen species in the week that normally sported fangs so there was no telling.

"Good afternoon" She drawled before stalking up to the front of the room. "My name is Sierra. Before we begin I wish to point out the simple fact that of the 12 of you at least two will die before this year is over. Blood magic is not for the faint of heart. The slightest error in a ritual WILL result in your death. This is one of the only classes without a penalty of some kind for dropping out. If, in the course of this class you feel you cannot continue without risking you life more then you find reasonable _then drop out_. All you prove by pushing on and getting yourself killed is that you're an idiot. However even if I feel you're going to get yourself killed I will not drop you from the class, if you want to be an idiot that's your own problem. The only way you leave this class is if you want to." She paused and surveyed the class intently before smiling rather grimly.

"Now to establish one more thing before you begin, there are two kinds of blood magic, white and black. White blood magic is not something anyone who lives in polite society learns, we will be discussing it in this class as well as the basic tenets of how it works, but we will NOT be learning it. This class is Black blood magic. Now I'm sure some of you are wondering what the hell I'm going on about, what exactly is the difference?" she sighed looking a bit tired before speaking once more. "White blood magic is truly dark magic, if such a thing can really be said to exist. If you ever come across it you will understand instantly what I am talking about. The magic generated from white blood magic is corrupted, if is foul. It is power generated from pain, and death, and torture. The magic of willing sacrifices is different, this is power generated from murder, the more pain a white blood mage can cause before their victims expire the more power they get from a kill." She pinned them all with a dangerous look. "If I ever find out one of my students have turned to white blood magic, I will find you, and _you will regret it._ NO ONE allows white blood mages to live, no county harbors them, and no people will tolerate it. The people of the world have been trying to wipe out white blood mages for thousands of years, but somehow or another there always seems to be someone we missed."

"Now black blood magic exists along some of the same tenets but applied very differently. It is also based on blood and pain, but on your own blood and pain, rather than another's. This is in part one of the many reasons black blood mages can die during a ritual, if you give too much of yourself to the ritual it will kill you. Within black blood magic there are two basic kinds of rituals, those that affect yourself and those that affect the world. Those that effect yourself can _only_ be done with your own blood and pain and are initially the easiest. They are very instinctive; you need to be able to listen to your own magic so it can tell you what to do. This was why the entrance test was as it was, that was to determine if you were closely linked enough to your magic that you could interpret what a ritual means, if you couldn't at least get a vague idea of what it was supposed to do then blood magic is not something you could ever learn anytime this century."

"Blood magic rituals are generally permanent and are carved into your own flesh. This both generates the power they need to come into existence, and shapes the magic. Hence why even slight errors in the cuts can kill you, they are very exact, even slight differences in the power necessary or the shape of the spell will kill you. We will get into the whys and hows of that more later. But for now we will begin discussing the knives you'll need for this, and why they are special."

X X X

Blood magic had been enlightening. Talyn was certain of that, only the first day and he had learned an immense amount. Among other things, he had learned that Dumbledore was full of shit. Not that this was surprising at all, but knowing for sure was kind of nice. Blood magic wards indeed! The kind of wards Dumbledore had talked about were not something Dumbledore would have ever done. It was possible that his _mother_ had done something impromptu that was then fueled by her death. Blood magic was after all very instinctive and no two people ever did things quite the same. Combined with voldemorts botched horcrux and you get his current situation. Speaking of which, Talyn rummaged around in his bag for another calming potion, he was starting to twitch again. He honestly thought he had been doing very good the last three days, he hadn't freaked out once thanks to the potions, although, it was probably giving people the impression he was a little more laid back than was really appropriate for a school like Snow Point.

Sighing softly as the potion took effect and the slight tremors that had been building subsided. Heading down the stair case he found the door he needed and went outside to a sheltered courtyard. A rather large courtyard, it was the size of a stadium, but without all the seats. You could tell it was protected though, because about a hundred feet up a blizzard of epic proportions raged against a glowing shield. Inside it was a little chilly, but nothing terrible.

5 students were already waiting across the field so he headed over. He resisted the urge to grimace when he spotted Nick's distinctive blue hair. Why did he get the feeling he wouldn't be leaving this class with all his limbs attached? He refused to show any fear to the panther though, and didn't move to the other side of the group. Heading for the middle and stopped a short distance away, no one was standing to close to each other. He felt Nicks eyes on him and ignored him, something that was far easier thanks to that potion.

This was supposed to be one of the largest classes here, the chances of him getting paired with the cat were relatively slim. But he knew his luck, he'd end up with Nick unless there was someone worse.

Ten minutes passed more students continued to trickle in. Talyn was glad he had thought ahead and worn something that he could move well in, everyone was wearing something light and flexible. He turned his attention to the sky in the mean time, it really was kind of cool, watching the snow tear at the shield. He was glad the balcony was so heavily warded against the weather, glass would have never stood up to storms like this.

"Nice to see everyone's actually here on time." Talyn glanced away from the ceiling to see Terwyn glaring at them. "And if you don't all stop staring at the ceiling I'm going to turn the ward off and call that today's practice." That got everyone eyes on him damn quick. He smirked, Talyn resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Now I could give you some damn speech about getting killed, but I think I'll let you think that up yourself. I'm going to pair you up now and you're to use everything you've got in the form of hand to hand combat to try and knock the other out, you're allowed to surrender if you want to but if I think it wasn't warranted ill kick your ass. If you're both still conscious at the end of the fight get up and go again. I'll be watching to see what kind of skills you lot have. This is the beginner's class I don't really expect you lot to have any but let's see what you can manage. If you have a form other than your current one you may use it."

Well that was something at least Talyn thought grimly, he could sort of fight in his tiger form, human form though? Not a chance, best he could do was get the hell out of the way. He waited as Terwyn paired everyone off, and got steadily more annoyed as Nick remained unpaired with anyone else. Terwyn seemed to delight in forcing people who despised each other to work together. In this case it was a recipe for excessive violence, which he supposed, was the general idea.

"Ashton you're with Jacques!" Talyn sighed and moved off away from the group to give them some room. Nick was smirking viciously.

"Lets see how good you do without magic human, I'm going to rip you apart!" Talyn shrugged, acting unconcerned

"I don't doubt it, if I was good at fighting like this I wouldn't be taking the class." Nick blinked, taken aback. Talyn sighed and shook his head, what was so damn surprising about knowing your own abilities. He couldn't fight, but he could _run_. If Nick wanted to rip his throat out he was going to have to catch him first.

"Begin!" Terwyn yelled, Nick didn't wait an instant and lunged. Talyn ducked practically flattening himself to the ground and Nick went sailing past, he hit the ground in a roll and came up on his feet without missing a beat. Talyn rolled to his feet as well watching wearily. Nick snarled and charged crossing the distance between then far faster than Talyn would have thought possible. He fainted left before actually dodging to the left knowing the panther would see though the faint and go right. Nick cussed and spun around this time Talyn didn't dodge instead met the hit head on taking the punch to the shoulder and turning with it to lessen the blow. He used Nicks surprise at his failure to dodge to put some more distance between them.

"Fucking fight you coward!" he snarled. Talyn shrugged ignoring the ache in his shoulder.

"I already told you I don't know how, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you catch me. If you can't knock me out you still don't win." Nearby Terwyn smirked at his words, pleased that someone in the class had a brain. Nick snarled and lunged, and as Talyn had half expected, his form blurred into the white furred panther. Not to be out done he threw himself out of the way and transformed as well. The panther came up short in surprise as the tiger roared in his face before spreading massive wings and jumping high over him. Talyn didn't just up and fly off merely using his wings to lengthen the jump. He landed almost twenty feet away and turned to face the panther.

Getting over his surprise Nick spun around and pounced razor sharp white fangs glinting. Talyn followed the tiger's instincts and reared back a bit to bat the panther out of the air with one massive paw. Nick went flying but managed to land on his feet. Talyn snarled at the enraged panther that shot at him once again, didn't this idiot every try anything new?

Talyn prepared to knock Nick across the grass again, but the panther skidded to a halt in front of him ducking under the swiping paw and coming up from underneath. Jaws wide open to catch the tiger's throat. It was Talyn's surprise at the move that saved him. The wings that had been open for balance as he reared up snapped downward as he recoiled. Pulling his throat out of reach, he managed to follow through by kicking off the ground and pushing himself backwards at the same time. He dropped back to all four paws and lowered his head to make it harder to get at his throat again before diving forward and plowing into Nick as he recovered from the miss.

After bowling Nick over he leapt back and started circling, he wasn't stupid enough to remain in close with Nick, if it turned into an all out brawl he was fucked. The idea was to stay out of reach and only attack if Nick gave him an opening a blind 2 year old could hit.

Nick staggered to his feet winded from the headbutt, and snarled. Terwyn's sudden yelled made them both jump "Enough you two, you'll be at this all week if you continue that, why don't you actually try a little strategy Jacques, Ashton seems to have figured that out!" Talyn huffed amused; Nick studied him, his eyes narrowed. Terwyn snorted and turned back to the other students beating the shit out of each other.

Less than five minutes later Talyn was on his back, one wing crumpled painfully under him and Nick's teeth at his throat. Luckily the cat wasn't biting hard enough to draw blood. Nick tightened his grip slightly and shook his head enough to make his point before letting go. Talyn groaned and rolled to his feet. He carefully stretched his squashed wing and gave the bent feathers a despairing look. He jumped when a green spell hit his wing, the feathers straightening out, he looked up to see Terwyn. "Better learn a spell to get those straightened out, Ashton or you're going to be a very sad kitten after class every day." Talyn bristled at the kitten comment, a low chuff from Nick's direction conveying the panther's amusement. Talyn glared at him, the panther smirked.

"Right try again you two. Try and keep your wings out of the way Ashton, and figure out how to roll without breaking feathers. Jacques I want you trying to damage his wings, he could have just up and flown away at any time if he had wanted to. You need to figure out how to ground him. Ashton I'll fix your wings after class but you'd better be able to do it yourself by next class or your shit out of luck."

X X X

Sep 24th

Hermione wasn't sure what to think when, nearly a week and a half after the pumpkin juice incident; Luna ambushed her in a back hall and dragged her into an unused classroom. The blond 4th year was looking at her with a strangely serious expression as she snapped the door closed and threw a silencing spell at it. "Luna? Whats wrong?" she asked, concerned, she didn't think Luna of all people would be helping the headmaster but she couldn't afford to overlook any possibilities. Luna was silent for a long moment, studying her intently before answering.

"The narges wanted me to warn you, Dumbledore is planning on spiking all the drinks at Gryffiondor's table tonight at dinner." Hermione had been about to sigh and start humoring Luna's usual insanity when the rest of what had been said hit her. _All_ of the drinks? How the hell was she going to avoid this one? It would look to suspicious if she didn't drink anything at dinner! But moreover...

"Luna? What exactly _is_ a nargle?" she asked wondering if this was just the girls way of telling she had overheard something or if there really were creatures called nargles. Luna grinned, the over excited expression unusual on her face.

"No one has ever actually bothered to ask me that before!" she said brightly, Hermione blinked a bit bemused.

"Um.. So what are they?" she asked again.

"Nargles are air elementals, they can tell when people are lying and like to tell me all the things they hear people saying. I asked them to pay _really_ close attention to the Headmaster this year. Crookshanks said it would be a good idea." Luna explained.

" _Crookshanks_ told you?" she asked blankly, her amazement that Luna apparently talked to air elementals put aide in favor of the mystifying statement. Luna just nodded.

"Of course, Crookshanks says it's his job to protect you, but he can't be everywhere." she frowned a little, then leaned forward and spoke in a stage whisper "I'm beginning to think that maybe he's not a regular Keanzal. They can be really smart but they don't usually talk." she shrugged. Hermione stared at her, her mouth hanging slightly open in dumbfounded surprise.

" _Of course Kneazel's can talk, you just have to know how to listen."_ a voice echoed in both their minds. Luna smiled and turned to the table at the front of the room. The large dull orange cat stat on the table top, blue eyes glinting with amusement.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean you're a Kneazel!" Luna countered with her dreamy smile back in place. Crookshanks shot her an amused look.

" _No, I suppose it doesn't, does it?"_ Crookshanks agreed.

"Um.." Hermione stared at Crookshanks, not really sure what to think about this. Crookshanks glanced at her thoughtfully before speaking again.

" _My lord would rather Id have waited longer to reveal myself to you but given the circumstances we needed to move now rather than later."_

 _"_ Wait, wait, wait! Who the hell is your 'lord' and moreover what exactly _are_ you if not a Kneazel?" Hermione demanded, annoyed.

" _My lord? No one you need fear Mrs. Granger. He is known to most as The Sun Lord Vikandis, God of the people of Karse and Iftel. As for myself, I am Reulan, Firecat and avatar of Vikandis_." Hermione starred at him, dumbfounded as where had once been a flat faced old orange tabby was now a cream colored cat with a red face, paws and tail tip, that was the size of a large Labrador.

"…..What?" he finally asked, numbplused, the cat nodded.

" _I understand that you are skeptical, it was to be expected. Do not worry overly much over whom I serve, the one person you need to worry about right now is yourself."_ Reulan answered grimly. Hermione frowned, Reulan was right.

"Can you think of any way to get around the drinks?" she asked, Reulan shook his head no.

" _No, and I don't think you should try."_ Hermione stared at him incredulously.

"What? Do you _want_ him to catch Harry or something?" she demanded, the Firecat snorted.

" _Of course not, I think you should leave, and leave **tonight**_ " the cat answered. Hermione stared at him blankly.

"I've only been here for two weeks! And where would I go?!" she demanded, even after Harry had left going elsewhere still seemed absurd. Reulan smirked.

" _That has been taken care of, you'll be going to the city of White Gryphon. It is in Africa on the eastern coast. I have arranged for a place to stay for you and your family. You will be going to the White Falls academy of magic in the city. Dumbledore should find it very difficult to find you there, and even if he does he can't legally remove you and the city has very good security force."_ Reulan explained in that smug way only cats could. Hermione stared at him, annoyed.

"And if I want to go somewhere else?" she asked tartly, Reulan shrugged.

" _Although even Gods cannot predict the future perfectly, they are far better at it than any mortal could ever hope for. If you go anywhere else you won't last two weeks before your back here and spelled loyal to the Headmaster. Do you really want him to know where Harry is?"_ Hermione glared at the firecat, knowing exactly what game he was playing, but not seeing a better choice.

"I think you should go." Luna spoke up, Hermione almost jumped, she had nearly forgotten that the Ravenclaw was there. She considered Luna for a long moment before sighing and nodding.

"Alright, I don't want to trust you, but it's either you or Dumbledore. I know what'll happen if I stay here." Reulan nodded, looking relived.

" _Thank you Hermione."_ Hermione frowned, wondering why on earth he was thanking her, if anything it should be the other way around.


	15. Catch me if you can

Reulan - quetzalcoatls deviantart com/art/Reulan-383236779

 

Chapter 15 – Catch me if you can (Angela via)

X X X

Hermione smirked as she finished stripping all the tracking charms off her belongings and Reulan double checked her work to ensure nothing had been missed. She was sad to be going really. Dumbledore aside this castle held a lot of memories for her, she hated to just walk away and hide like a terrified rabbit, she wasn't in the house of lions for nothing after all. Did the other Gryffindors ever even stop to think about the kind of person she was at heart, to be so much a Ravenclaw, yet her bravery and courage still outweighed that?

Of course not, she was the book worm. They forgot the girl in first year who kept her cool in devils snare, they forgot the girl in second year who had braved hallways she _knew_ contained a basilisk to warn her friends, they forgot the girl who had gone down that tunnel after a convicted murder and then traveled to the past to rescue him. They forgot that she was more of a Gryffindor than they would ever be. In light of that she had decided that it was high time this school knew just what they'd had under their noses without ever realizing it.

" _You are a cruel child….. And I will still be laughing about this centuries from now."_ Reulan spoke, his voice sounding clearly in her mind, she really needed to get used to that. She merely shrugged at his words, her smirk transforming into a wicked grin.

"I think these people need a wake up call, what you see isn't always what you get." She answered. The Firecat chuckled, thinking of the presents she had left all around the school. Honestly the sheer number of useful spells the child knew, it was almost frightening, but he supposed she had to pick up _something_ from all that reading. What did they think she was reading all day? History books? Fat chance! This girl had learned some truly diabolical things in that library and was using her muggleborn ingenuity to put them to use.

" _Do try to leave the place standing, I don't think Hogwarts would appreciate being blown up."_ He answered wryly. Hermione glanced at him curiously.

"I don't think the castle will care about a few scorch marks." She deadpanned.

" _You realize the castle is sentient right? She's just not capable of talking to people."_ Hermione blinked at him, startled as she closed the trunk and shrunk it down.

"Seriously?" she asked, the cat nodded.

" _Of course."_ Hermione hummed thoughtfully, thinking over her little 'presents' before shrugging.

"It should be fine, I didn't leave anything too dangerous. I was trying to prove a point, not kill anyone." Hermione had made sure anything dangerous was in and around Dumbledore's office, one of the house elves had been only too happy to hide Dumbledore's 'present' for her. She had avoided using Dobby, not only had Dumbledore probably covered that base, but after living with the Malfoys he probably knew what 'present' meant in this case.

 _"You have everything?"_ he asked, at her nod he placed a paw on her knee and concentrated. Hermione took one last look around the dorm room that had been her home for four years, and then she and Reulan vanished.

Up in Dumbledore's office an alarm went off with a shriek.

X X X

Hermione reappeared in her parent's living room looking a little green. "Oh hell, that's worse then apperation." She groaned and sat down rather abruptly, she really didn't want to puke. Reulan gave her a sympathetic look.

" _It can be rather nauseating the first few times, it's been like that ever since the cataclysm, not as bad as during the storms but it's still a bit of a ride."_ Reulan agreed, before strolling out of the room to locate her parents.

The low mrrow nearly made Sarah jump a few moments later, she looked down to see Crookshanks by her ankle, the Firecats illusion back in place. How the heck had he gotten here? He was supposed to be at the school with Hermione! The cat stared her down with those strangely piercing blue eyes of his before dashing out the door. She worriedly followed the cat to the living room, only to find Hermione getting unsteadily to her feet.

"Hermione?" she asked confused, Hermione looked up and smiled a little wanly at her.

"Um Mom, how do you feel about moving to Africa?" she asked, Sarah blinked.

"What? Why would we?" she wasn't sure what to think of that. Hermione shrugged, looking tired.

"Things went downhill at Hogwarts, I had to make a run for it, we don't have a lot of time, where is Dad? We need to start packing, we only have an hour or two before they know I'm gone."

"What? What do you mean 'things went downhill'?! Why are you running away?" Sarah demanded, alarmed. Hermione grimaced.

"The headmaster is nuts, he was trying to drug me with mind control potions to find Harry so I had to get out. I have a friend who going to set us up in the city of White Gryphon in Africa, Dumbledore can't legally get to me there, not that that's going to stop him for long but they apparently have good security." Hermione answered rapidly. Sarah blinked slowly.

"Hermione, are you sure…."

"MOM!" Hermione's yell cut her off, she was glaring at her mother in frustration. "We don't have time for this! Get Dad and start packing! We need to leave now!"

" _She is right, we must leave soon, and we don't have very long."_ Sarah's head snapped downward to stare at the cat, which quite abruptly, no longer looked like a house cat. The red and white cat stared her down, its head now at waist height.

 _"_ What the hell?" she demanded taking a step back in shock. Hermione sighed and shot Reulan a sour look.

"Mom this is Reulan, he was pretending to be a house cat, he was Crookshanks. He's the one who got me out of Hogwarts." Sarah was about to answer as Richard stepped into the room.

"Hermione? What are you doing home?" Hermione looked relived, her father tended to be more sensible about these things, and he already had a good idea as to what was going on.

"Dumbledore's gone completely off the rails, he was trying to drug me with mind control potions, I have a place we can go in a magical city in Africa. You need to pack!" she explained rapidly, now Richard had been in the military when he was younger, he understood that sometimes there was no time to talk about things, or you'd get your ass shot while you yapped. After helping Harry get out of the country he had been half expecting something like this to happen.

"Sarah go pack, we need to leave." Sarah shot him a look, frowning, before looking back at Hermione.

"Are you _sure_ this really necessary dear?" she asked her daughter.

"YES!" Hermione snapped back, getting impatient. Sarah looked at her for a long moment before nodding sharply and sighing.

"Alright, how long do we have?" Sarah agreed, Hermione smiled, relived.

"An hour? Maybe less?" she answered, Sarah nodded and disappeared upstairs. "I'll shrink stuff for you!" she called after her. "Not like I have to worry about underage magic laws if I'm leaving the country," Hermione sighed in relief as her father also left to pack.

" _I was beginning to worry."_ Reulan said thoughtfully, Hermione nodded tiredly and headed upstairs to help her mother. 20 minutes later Reulan tensed, his ears flicking up like he was listening to something, before cursing. " _Dammit, I thought it would take longer!"_ he hissed, turning to glare at the door and the old wizard that had just appeared on the front walk. A moment later magic fluxed outside and Dumbledore was forced to dodge a fireball from an angry pair of Firecats. " _Ah, back up."_ He muttered relived. " _Hermione!"_ he called sharply.

"What wron…" a loud bang from outside cut her off, she swore and bounded down the stairs.

" _Don't worry you've got a minute. Grab your parents and let's go!_ Reulan snapped.

"MOM DAD TIME TO GO!" she yelled up the stairs. Less than a minute later her father came thundering down the stairs a duffle bag over his shoulder and carrying two more, one in each hand.

"SARAH LETS GO!" he called, Hermione could hear her mother swearing up stairs, before she came running as well with a backpack and a suitcase.

"That bastard better not blow the house up!"She growled, Hermione stifled a laugh, her mother was not someone you wanted to deal with when she was pissed. And few things made her madder than being rushed. Reulan didn't wait for them to even stop moving, the moment they were all close enough to link magic to they were gone. The two Firecats outside blinked out as well, unharmed if not a little ruffled. Dumbledore didn't even bother entering the house, he could tell his quarry was long gone. He quickly cast a spell to trace the magic, thinking it a portkey or some such, but the trace faded unnaturally fast, keeping him from getting a lock on it.

"Damn," he muttered darkly, he knew she had known what was going on! With a crack he vanished as well, thinking hard as he made his way back to his office. What had those cats been? He had never seen anything quite like them before, and how in all the hells had the girl tricked the truth potion he had given her? That at least he _knew_ had worked, even if his other spells had all failed for one reason or another.

He frowned heavily wondering where it had all gone wrong. Everything had been going according to plan, and then Harry had up and bolted out of the blue! He didn't even look up as the gargoyle jumped out of his way and he headed up the stairs. "Why can't they understand that I know best?" he muttered tiredly as he entered his office. He sat down heavily at his desk, to distracted by his thoughts to sense the spell on the chair that had just been set off. A long moment passed before the spell triggered completely setting off several dozen magical fireworks that had been hidden strategically around the room. Dumbledore's howl of pain and surprise was drowned out by the sound of a thousand firecrackers (the magical variety, 20 minutes of continuous fun or your money back!) going off all throughout the school at once, as well as a number of far subtler things that would be slowly discovered over the coming weeks. Much to everyone but the Weasely twins horror.

(AN/ I know people are going to be howling about how this isn't Hermione style, and you'd be right, she's not really a prankster. It was meant to be a distraction to buy her more time, but of course he triggered it after he came back and not before he left. Oh well, it'll still keep him busy for a while.)

X X X

Hermione groaned as she landed in a heap on the ground. Oh god, that was far worse over long distances, so so much worse. "I think, in the future, I'll be walking." She heard her dad groan, she made a sound of agreement but made no move to get up or talk. The way she felt her lunch would probably end up all over the floor if she did.

"I have to say that was one of the more spectacular landings I've ever seen." A voice piped up, Hermione made to get up only to feel a hand on her shoulder pushing her back down gently. "Careful, I've done long rang jumps with a Firecat before, you're better off just laying there for a few minutes." Hermione couldn't deny that he was right, but didn't let her suspicion fade away.

" _Oh calm down, he's one of the priests"_ Reulan grumbled in her mind tiredly. " _We are currently in a temple for my Lord in White Gryphon, you'll stay here tonight and move into your new home in the morning."_

"Sounds good," she muttered, wondering if it was safe to open her eyes yet.

X X X

Hermione wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but when she stepped out of the temple the next morning she had to stop and stare in utter awe. The crash of waves on the rocks below was barely audible where they stood high up on a snow white cliff. It had to be several hundred feet tall and extended to her left and right in two great arms around a massive bay easily miles across. The waters below were a perfect tropical blue-green and the ships moored at the docks looked like toys in a bath tub. Over head a dozen gold, tan, and cream colored gryphons played on the still breeze blowing in off the ocean.

It, it was wonderful. She heard the priest chuckle behind her. "It is nice to see our home can still put people in awe." He said with a smile, Hermione could only nod, unable to tear her gaze away from the sight.

"Beautiful." Her mother whispered behind her. Hermione smiled, she couldn't wait to tell Harry about this place.

"If you could follow me?" the priest called, finally tearing her away from the view. He was waiting patiently next to a long staircase. Hermione winced internally at the thought of the shear amount of stair climbing this place would require, but for _that_ view she would put up with it gladly. The three turned and headed after the priest. "Your apartments are on the lower levels, the 5th to be precise, there are 65 total." He explained as they began the long trek downward.

"We are currently on the 51 level so it's a ways down, you needn't worry about getting back up, there are elevators of a sort for reaching the upper most levels. The earlier founders believed it was good for you to take the stairs but even they understood that making someone climb all the way back up was a bit cruel. The first few generation didn't have that luxury however, as the city was founded in the aftermath of the Cataclysm. Magic was at the time, unreliable at best, no one would have trusted a magical elevator system." He said with a bit of a grin. Hermione gave him a puzzled look.

"Cataclysm?" She asked, he shot her an odd look.

"They don't teach ancient history in England?" he asked, she snorted.

"Our history teacher was a ghost who was stuck on the goblin rebellions, he didn't learn much of anything in that class. And the history books only went back a few hundred years at best." She answered, he sighed looking thoughtful.

"Well a short history of this city then. White Gryphon was founded in the aftermath of an event that has become known as the Cataclysm. The Cataclysm itself was caused by the assassination of the great sorcerer adept Urtho, and his enemy Ma'ar who was killed at the same time as Urtho finally expired from poisoning. The power released by the device used to kill Ma'ar and Urtho's own death created an explosion of magical energy which tore half the world apart and permanently damaged magic itself. The blast created the Dhorisha plains, and Lake Evendim. Both of which are far to the north of here. The mage Urtho was allies with a group of nomadic people know as the Kaled'a'in. the clans were able to escape but one was separated from the others and chose to head south to find undamaged lands. That was the clan k'Leshya. They eventually found unravaged lands and founded White Gryphon. Named for the gryphon who delivered Utho's final weapon to Ma'ar. As his escape though an unstable gate spell bleached his black feathers snow white." Hermione stared at him, utter focused on his tale as he continued to speak. Telling her of k'Leshya's meeting with the Haighlei Empire, and two thousand years later finding their way back to the north and the other clans just in time for the Cataclysm to echo back across time and nearly destroy the world again.

How much had she missed trapped in that castle in Scotland? She had so much to catch up on. Her eyes glittered with glee at the thought of all there would be to learn in this place, she couldn't wait.

X X X

He'd been twitching all day, and whether Devaran believed him or not, it wasn't about the horcrux. Something was wrong, he _knew_ it. He tried not to think about it and went through the spell he was trying to learn once more. The upside of knowing a gryphon being that she knew the spell for fixing feathers, the hard part was learning how to do it wandlessly. It didn't do him much good if he had to change back to fix his wings, he wouldn't have wings at the time.

He sighed giving up for the moment stalked into his bedroom to collapse in a heap face down on the bed with a thud. He laid there for a long moment once more wondering what the hell could _possibly_ be wrong now that he was missing somehow. Rolling over with a growl he stared at the ceiling willing it to tell him what the hell was wrong. It promptly turned orange. Talyn blinked at the accidental magic before snorting and grabbing his wand off the side table to fix the ceiling. He froze, the journal was glowing. He couldn't jump out of bed fast enough. Snatching the journal from the table and all but tearing it open.

_First off I am fine, so stop panicking, I know you._

Talyn blinked at those first words, mildly embarrassed that he was that predictable before reading on. Cursing himself for being stuck on the wrong side of the planet while Hermione was caught up in whatever bullshit was now consuming Hogwarts. The next sentence nearly made him see red, even with the calming potions.

 _I hadn't wanted to tell you, but Dumbledore has been trying to drug me with loyalty potions and such, obviously he hadn't succeeded, but I ended up having to make a run for it last night after Luna warned me he was going to spike all the drinks at dinner. It wasn't as difficult as I would have thought. It turns out Crookshanks is not a_ Kneazel _. He's a Firecat and apparently the avatar of some sun god I've never heard of. Ill interrogate him more later, but Luna trusts him and I needed to get away fast. Firecats can apparently teleport so it worked out. I got my parents and I'm in a city in Africa right now called White Gryphon, you should see this place, it's beautiful! Fully magical city and all, I'm currently signed up to start at White Falls Academy of Magic here in the city. So all in all I'm fine, my parents are fine, and I put fireworks in Dumbledore's office so he's probably not fine._

_-Hermione_

Talyn stared at the message, not really sure if he should be angry or happy. It was weird really, that he hadn't needed to go to the rescue. He grimaced slightly, annoyed. "Damn hero complex." He muttered darkly, irritated with himself.

X X X


	16. Rush

Chapter 16 – Rush – Aly & AJ

October 10th

X X X

"Now, has everyone brought the supplies I requested?" Sierra surveyed the class receiving nods all the way around. "Good, as I told you today you will be making your first blood magic knife. You will not be using it for a while yet, and it is entirely likely this first attempt will fail dismally, but you're still going to try. The initial steps will be done in one of the work rooms but a ritual is necessary to activate and tune the knife to your magic. Now each of you should have something to use as the actual blade of your knife, I will be coming around and looking at what you've come up with to see if you have the right idea. Some things simply don't work while others can be rather odd. I had one of the advanced students once make a blade out of oak leaves." With that everyone pulled out their bases and Sierra started going around. Talyn breathed a sigh of relief at that as he pulled out the broken grey feather he had lost on the way to the island. He had an idea as to how to use the feather, but hadn't been sure if it would really work.

The feather itself was nearly two feet long having broken off near the base. Sierra had told them that the closer something was tied to them the better it would work and the feather had been a part of him. The chunk of holly wood he had also brought would probably work as well, but it was only something that had a moderate harmonic with his magic not a direct connection.

"What exactly did the feather come from?" Talyn nearly jumped as Sierra's voice cut through his thoughts.

"Um, my animagus form." He answered; she frowned thoughtfully while picking it up carefully.

"How were you planning on using it? There are ways to stiffen the edges into a blade but that's a bit too advanced for you right now." She enquired turning it over in her hands.

"I was going to cut the barbs off and use the shaft as the blade. It doesn't have to have an actual blade right? As long as it has a sharp point that can cut?" he explained. Sierra frowned thoughtfully before nodding.

"I think that might work." She agreed, "What else were you going to use?"

"I was thinking of using this." He said holding up a crystal vial filled with light amber liquid. "Its sap from a holly bush, my wand is made of holly so I know I can channel magic through it, everything else that I've got is a little to unique to use for a first try." Sierra studied it thoughtfully.

"Is it from the same plant as your wand?" she asked, he shook his head no. "Well that might work, the lack of connection in the core will be made up by the feather having been part of you, but it should still be able to channel magic. Don't cut any corners and it should work alright for a beginner blade." Talyn nodded as she moved onto the next person. Privately he was glad that this wasn't going to be a perfect first try, he was sick of being the best at things, and getting everything right by sheer dumb luck. It was refreshing to actually have to try, and he was finding that he loved the challenge.

An hour later found him in the large work room carefully cutting the barbs (the feathery part of the feather ;) off the shaft with a razor sharp silver knife. Once he had them off he took a piece of very fine sandpaper and carefully smoothed out any imperfections left by the cutting. The ritual would fix some imperfections in the blade, but the less it had to compensate for the stronger the knife, and the less likely it was to blow up in your face mid spell and kill you.

Looking at the book next to him he studied the coil of runes that needed to be etched into the surface before adding anything else. The down side to this part was that you really did have to just eyeball it and trust your instincts. You couldn't paint the runes on and trace them, and if you screwed up at all you had to scrap the whole thing. Carefully holding the silver rod he was to use to etch the runes he channeled a tiny bit of magic and started drawing. He took it slowly letting both his magic and an eye on the diagram in the book lead him. It took nearly two hours to finish the design, the stylus leaving behind a strange slightly indented and shimmering silver blue line behind it.

Finally able to pull the stylus away he leaned back with a groan, cracking his back, and glancing around the room. Most everyone else was in various stages of etching but it looked like the two older students had left for the activation ritual already. Stretching one more time he pulled out the holly sap and poured it in the broken end of the shaft, he had cut it down to a little over a foot in length so the break was much smoother then it had been. A small circle of the scrap feather shaft had also been saved to close the opening, the ritual could seal it but it was better to not make it work that much, it'd be easier if it just had to meld things together rather than warp the whole end of the shaft. He stood and made his way over to the door. Sierra met him there and he handed her the knife wordlessly, not wanting to disturb the others still working.

She turned it, careful not to spill any of the sap as she inspected the rune work. After a moment she handed it back and waved him out of the room. "Number 32 would work best" she said quietly. Heading down the hall he quickly found room thirty two. All the blood magic chambers were numbered as they all had slightly different properties that could help or hinder blood magic depending on the person and the ritual. She had only shown them the first ten and explained how they were different and what each one was best for, but he had never been in 32 before.

Stepping inside the closest like entrance room he kicked off his shoes and walked into the blood magic chamber itself. It was a good thing this ritual didn't require him to take his clothes off, he would have had to juggle the knife the whole time. Carefully standing in the middle of the room he looked around taking in the designs scrawled in some kind of white metal across the domed room. The ceiling was covered in chips of something blue, maybe sapphires? Set into the floor was a design done in cut chunks of quartz and what looked like amethyst. He stood on a diamond of quartz from which four spars of amethyst radiated outward along the compass points almost 10 feet long each. A few feet beyond their tips was a solid ring of clear quartz going around the entire design.

Taking a deep breath he stood perfectly still after placing the cap on the end of the open end of the feather. He pushed his magic outward until it joined with the magic of the room activating the shielding array under him and lighting up the blood magic runes on the walls. The runes on the knife began to glow a moment later. Dimly at first but quickly gaining strength. After a moment he switched from channeling magic into the room and began sending it to the knife. The runes brightened further the magic beginning the process of actually activating the knife, the entire blade taking on a green and silver glow. He let go as soon as the green faded into solid silver. The knife hovered, held aloft by the magic as the end ran like hot wax. Sealing the blade and smoothing out imperfections. He didn't let himself relax until the glow had completely faded the blade settling lightly to the floor. He waited a moment before picking it up. The blade was now rock hard, the shaft not having any flexibility anymore. He eyed it and frowned, he didn't like it. It was just….off.

Sighing, he left the chamber; put his shoes back on and headed back to the workroom. Sierra grinned when she spotted the frown on his face. "You didn't like how it came out?" she asked he shook his head no. "I had thought that might happen, but let me see it for a second." He handed the blade over without complaint. Sierra turned it over in her hands checking all the runes, the fusion of the cap, how smooth the blade was, and a half dozen other thing Talyn couldn't follow. "Odd. Are you sure it won't work?"

"It just doesn't feel right." Talyn answered, wondering if he was just being paranoid. Sierra watched him for a long moment before smiling.

"Good." She answered brightly. Talyn blinked, taken aback by her sudden cheer. "If you had thought this blade would work for you I would be worried about those seemingly wonderful instincts of yours."

"So what did I mess up on?" he asked, she smirked.

"You didn't mess up." She held up the blade so the light shone off the glass like surface of the dark grey blade with its silver runes. "This blade is nearly perfect. There is no reason it cannot be used for just about any basic ritual, even non bloodmagic work, without the slightest problem." She continued on despite Talyns look of utter mystification. "However, this knife, even though the blade was made from your own feather will not harmonize with your magic. This is both because of the sap and the room I told you to use."

"But then why?" Talyn trailed off, annoyed. If that had been the wrong room to use why the hell had she directed him there?

"Because if you had used the room best for you, you _might_ have gotten a usable blade, but more likely it would have blown up in your face half way through. I knew if you used 32 you would get a working knife. Just not one use could use." She handed the blade back to him. "I want you to think about the reasons why this happened. And ways you could have done it differently to get a good blade that will work for you. I expect at least three pages on it by next class, alright? And don't worry; I'm sure you'll find someone it will work for." Talyn frowned thoughtfully, and nodded, before grabbing his bag from the work room and heading to the dorms.

Sierra watched him go thoughtfully. "What do you think?" Adriana asked letting her invisibility spell fall away. Sierra hummed thoughtfully.

"I think no one has ever _unintentionally_ done what he just pulled. A nearly perfect blade, even made from himself, but meant to harmonize with someone else's magic. I could do it easily enough, but to tune a blade to any magic but your own is not something you do accidentally. He's an odd one, he keeps showing the same aptitude across the board as well, right?" Sierra asked. The headmistress nodded.

"His magic _is_ oddly focused on working with powers other than his own. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was a channel, but he certainly has a more than respectable amount of magic and is quite capable of using it, it will be interesting to see what he becomes once that leech is removed."

X X X

A line of red appeared on Talyns arm as he twisted around and out of Nicks grasp, the teen's razor sharp claws scoring a shallow line as he was just slightly to slow. Talyn hit the ground a moment later as the leg he had lost track of during the dodge hooked his ankle and pulled it out from under him. He hit the ground face first and tried to roll away but Nick was quick to pin him down. Those sharp claws digging into the base of his neck, he went still, knowing he had lost once again. After a long moment Nick let him up. The cat was smirking at him. Talyn refrained from glaring; it was only combat class, not a real fight. But you'd never know that from how smug the bastard was after pinning him for the fifth time today.

"Not so easy when you can't just run away is it?" Nick mocked, Talyn shrugged, he had figured out by now that the best way to get to Nick was to ignore him, or act like his posturing was nothing to write home about.

"Sure, but if this was a real fight you would have never caught me to begin with." He answered with a mild smile. Nick glowered and opened his mouth to snap something back but was cut off when he was pinned to the ground by a massive Lion. The big cat growled lowly and Talyn was certain he heard Nick squeak. The Lion shifted most of his weight onto the paw in the middle of Nicks back for a long moment earning a groan of pain from the pinned teen. Terwyn snorted and stepped off Nick, changing back as he moved away.

"You might want to try paying attention to your surroundings Jacques." The lion drawled, Nick coughed and pulled himself to his feet. Talyn had to sympathize, he had found out last week just how much that lion weighed when he had made the same mistake. "Right, both of you head out, class ended five minutes ago but you were too busy to notice." They both blinked in surprise and glanced around noting that most of the other students were indeed gone. "Ashton, Devaran want to see you as soon as possible as well, so get moving."

X X X

"You needed to see me?" Devaran looked up from the papers he had been grading and smiled when he saw who it was.

"Indeed I did, we finished creating the ritual necessary to remove the soul fragment." Talyn just stared at him dumbfounded for a long moment before grinning. Devaran snorted, amused. "I thought you might appreciate that."

"So, what do I need to do?" Talyn asked, trying to contain his excitement, he was beginning to grow immune to his potions. He was only too glad know he wouldn't have to worry about breaking down in hysterics once the damn thing was gone.

"You need to show up and sit still for about an hour, aside from that, not much." Was the amused response. That pulled Talyn up short; he frowned, not liking how easy this sounded.

"Um, professor? This just seems…."

"Too easy? You expressed your concerns before Ashton, you need to stop worrying so much. Perhaps it is just due time for a little good luck for you. The ritual has been checked by several of us, we are certain it will work, we've even worked in a number of contingences in case they are any well hidden traps in the soul fragment." Talyn eyed him warily, not in the least bit comforted by this, but he knew no amount of arguing was going to convince them. And inevitable bullshit aside, he _really_ wanted this damn fragment gone.

"Alright professor, when are we doing this?"

"In one week, when the full moon comes around."

X X X

Oct -17th

Talyn wasn't sure what to think of the complex array on the floor. A few weeks of runes and blood magic didn't in the least prepare him for understanding something like this. The room was one of the bloodmagic chambers in the locked section of the hall. Every time you moved up in the classes you were keyed into the wards for the more powerful rooms, unless he was mistaken this one was locked to everyone under final year. It was made of what looked to be obsidian, with silver inlaid into the floor in a dizzying array of circles and lines. Runes scattered in between them. Other runes had been added to the design, drawn in blood, his own blood would be joining them soon. Above them the ceiling was a single perfect dome of quartz easily 30 feet across, the full moon was halfway visible at the edge of the skylight. The ritual would start when the moon completely entered the skylight so they only had 10 minutes or so.

He shot a look over at the headmistress who gave him a reassuring smile. "No need to look so grim Talyn, you'll be fine. If we weren't capable of improvising we wouldn't teach at Snow Point. I highly doubt there is anything the fragment could throw at us that we can't deal with." Talyn smiled wryly at this before speaking.

"I reserve the right to say 'I told you so'" he answered earning a chuckle out of Devaran, who was placing a few more runes on the far side of the room.

"Enough Ashton, we need to start." Talyn shrugged at Devaran before with a mental cringe that he refused to show placed the light robe he had been wearing in the side chamber and resolutely headed for the center of the spiraling symbols on the floor, trying very hard not to turn a fascinating shade of red at his current state of undress. He was the only one who had to go without clothing for this unfortunately; he needed to have a set of blood runes carved into his back and chest to tie him to the ritual spell that the Headmistress, Devaran, and Sierra would be directing. The spell itself was far beyond anything he had studied thus far. Normally bloodmagic didn't use a runic array on the floor like this, but due to the nature of what they wanted to do, and the fact that he wasn't doing this himself, the runes were needed.

He flinched as Sierra practically teleported behind him pulling him out of his thoughts, that vampiric trick was always somewhat unnerving, but was better than having to worrying about smudging something. "This is going to hurt quite a bit, Ashton. Try not to move, if I mess this up and it somehow doesn't kill you we'll have to wait months to try again." She explained drawing a dagger whose blade glittered strangely. Talyn nodded before trying to stay as still as possible. The bite of the blade in his flesh a moment later as the moon crossed fully into view wasn't quite as bad as he had feared. A deep burning sting crawling across his back as Sierra worked. Compared to the cruciatus curse and his long ago poisoning with basilisk venom, this was nothing to write home about.

The magics of the runes on the floor began to spark. Small threads like slow motion lightning crawling across them slowly gaining power as they drew in the moonlight. Sierra's work was swift but made no attempt to lessen the pain or bloodshed of carving the bloodrunes. Doing so would in fact weaken the spell. Even with black bloodmagic, pain was a necessary component. You paid for what you were trying to accomplish with every drop of blood and every spark of agony. In the end, the more it hurt, the stronger it was. It wasn't hard to understand why even though black bloodmages weren't viewed with the quite same 'kill it with fire' spirit as white bloodmages, everyone still thought they were a little, _off_.

After nearly twenty minutes of carving Sierra finally dragged the blade in an arc over his right shoulder and set up the final part of the array. A series of concentric circles over his heart, linked together by a three pronged spiral before a final line went over his left shoulder tying the whole piece together. Sierra pulled back, the moment the knife left his skin the bleeding lines all turned bright silver and started burring like acid was being dripped into every inch of them. He shuddered slightly not even noticing when Sierra crossed back out of the array, the pain beginning to cross over into something comparable to that damn curse. The silver glow threaded its way down his body following the trails of blood to the floor before connecting to the runes there.

Talyn dimly registered the three teachers almost chanting something, it wasn't quite an actual chant, but rather the language it was in was oddly lyrical. Giving it that effect when spoken for a spell like this. The moonlight seemed to brighten before with a massive snapping sound, the spell formed by the runes on the floor shot inward into the bloodrunes. Talyn screamed, the powerful magic sinking claws into his soul and searching through it until it found the malignant black tumor that was the soul fragment. The pain increased a hundred fold as the fragment was located and the spell began to burn it away.

When they had initially explained this to him he had thought that they would somehow pull the soul fragment out of him. Devaran, had promptly shot this theory down by explaining that the fragment was a bit like a plant, it had been infecting his soul so long it had more or less sunk 'roots' deep into Talyns soul. Trying to pull it out would be akin to pulling a flower out of a pot. The roots would drag all the dirt along with them. Only the 'dirt' in this case was Talyns soul, and they didn't really want to rip his soul into tiny pieces just to extract the fragment. So really the only way to remove it was to essentially burn it out. Destroying the plant and leaving the ground mostly undamaged.

That explanation hadn't really allowed him to comprehend how much the process was going to hurt.

Adriana winced as the teens screams increased in pitch a bit as the spell began to truly take effect. She herself was not a bloodmage, her specialty lay in runes and enchantments, she truly didn't understand how people could willingly use this kind of magic for anything but a dire situation. She shot a glance over the array to Devaran and Sierra, both were still steadily feeding magic into the seal. At this point nothing more needed to be cast, it was just of matter of keeping the power flow steady until the soul leech was gone.

The array crackled sharply just as the moon began to slide out of the very center of the domed ceiling. The magic hissing and it was dragged out of Ashton, with a final shriek of pain the teen collapsed unmoving to the floor. Adriana held her breath for a moment before relaxing as she saw the slow rise and fall of the boys bloodied chest. Adriana let out the breath she'd been holding and smiled. Devaran chuckled, sounding a bit out of breath from all the magic expended. "I guess he was wrong, that wasn't difficult at all." he commented, Adriana began to nod when she felt the power in the room shift strangely, it was like that feeling when the shadow of some great beast was cast over you, she went absolutely still then glanced down at Talyn. A faint silvery green aura was flickering around him, her eyes widened and she barely had time to slam a shield around herself before the room whited out.

Back in South America people looked to the south in confusion as a massive beam of white light pierced the sky for several long seconds. The beam flickered before tapering off, a green and silver aurora ripping outwards in a wavering ring as the light faded.

X X X

Talyn was walking, he wasn't sure how he had found himself here, but he dimly noted that he wasn't particularly worried about that fact. 'here' was path that led downward around the inside of the cone of an active volcano. Not all that far below the brightly glowing pool of molten rock bubbled and churned. He noted thoughtfully that the trail continued right down into the lava and wondered where exactly he was going. He was only a few paces away from the lapping edge when the whole mountain shivered almost imperceptibly and the lava level abruptly began to drop. The path seemed to be cooling just as quickly as it was uncovered, the stone not even warming the soles of his shoes. Now that he thought about it, shouldn't he be feeling more than a gentle warmth from being the close to the molten rock?

The path continued downward for another hundred feet, the lava continuing to retreat just ahead of his steps. He stopped suddenly not really knowing why and watched calmly as the lava continued to retreat. Revealing a rough arch in the half molten cliff face. As soon as the lava had completely left the tunnel he stepped down and headed inside. Less than a dozen feet inside he was forced to stop once again. Blocking his path was a wall of white crystal spines all layered together in a spiral completely blocking the path. A moment passed before, as one, the spines all moved, flexing outward in a perfectly synchronized motion to open the tunnel. Stepping carefully on the spines that now layered the floor he continued on ahead. Sensing movement behind him he looked back onto to see the spines spiral closed again, peeling away from the walls and floor. A glow hit the bottom of them a moment after they closed and he realized that the lava pool was refilling.

Not really able to make himself feel concerned about the hundred feet of lava that would soon be blocking off his retreat he turned and headed deeper into the mountain. The path twisted and turned but always headed deeper, he knew he must be a few miles underground by now. What could possibly be down here? Almost as if in answer to his thoughts a glow appeared up ahead. One much brighter than the crystals that jutted from the ceilings and walls every few dozen feet to light the way. He stumbled, glancing down he was puzzled to note that he'd tripped over a tree root. Glancing ahead he saw what looked like massive tree trunks covering the walls of the path, their expansive root systems coiling across the rocky floor.

Stepping more carefully now, Talyn picket his way through the roots, coming around a corner he stopped dead and starred in awe. Two massive waterfalls dropped hundreds of feet down into a massive lake. The cavern was as brightly lit as noon sunlight by what looked like thousands of tiny crystals in the roof of the football stadium sized cave. Massive ancient trees grew out of the walls and grass coated the ground. But it was none of these things that caught and held his attention, in the very center of the lake was a massive perfectly clear crystal. The spire jutted upwards at a slight angle nearly fifty feet high, smaller crystals poked out of the water around it, crackles of energy leaping between them and to the central spire. But the spire was flawed; he could see the fault running the length of it, refracting the light. Something had cracked the crystal, cracked but not broken it.

Talyn stepped into the cavern, unable to take his eyes off the great jewel. The grass ripped around him in an unfelt breeze.

"I had wondered how long it would take for you to finally hear me my child." A female voice spoke behind him. Talyn move to spin around but a hand on his shoulder halted the movement. The wiry fingers held surprising strength for the seeming age of the speaker whose voice sounded rough with incredible age. "Best if you don't child, I wouldn't want to frighten you off, I'm really not at my best these days." It took a moment for Talyn to find his voice.

"Who are you? Where is this?" he asked. A rough chuckle answered him at this.

"Who am I? Well, that is something you'll have to learn for yourself, child, I can't go giving you all the answers. I dare say you wouldn't believe me if I told you anyways. As for this place, it is known by your kind as The Heart of the Earth. And if you wish to know more than that you'll have to find it somewhere other than mere dreams."

"Dreams?" he wondered aloud before his surroundings abruptly collapsed into darkness.

X X X


	17. Don't worry 'bout a thing

Chapter 17 – Don't worry 'bout a thing – shedaisy

 

X X X

Oct 18 – morning after ritual

Hermione stifled a yawn as she walked into the entrance hall of whitefalls, she had been up since five in the morning(as had everyone else) after a massive magical shockwave had rattled the city. No one yet knew what had caused the blast, but everyone was worried. All that the cities security had been able to learn was that it wasn't something in the city, or even nearby. Which was on its own a major concern. What could have created a blast powerful enough to knock everyone silly but with the source far enough away so as to not be immediately apparent?

She hoped they figured it out soon, the curiosity would get to her before too long. "Hermione! Wait up!" a voice called behind her. She paused and glanced back, spotting Sarah, another student about a month younger than her who had been working with her on a research project. Clutched triumphantly in the girls hand was a newspaper. Hermione grinned, finally!, Sarah's next words made her close her eyes and sigh in resignation however. "Doesn't your brother go to Snow Point?!" she asked worriedly, brandishing the newspaper at Hermione. Hermione nodded, taking the newspaper from the other girls hand and unrolling it.

**Disaster at Snow Point Academy of Magic!**

**_Entire school rendered unconscious in blast!_ **

_Late last night local time an unexplained explosion rocked the Drake Passage, the approximate location of the elite Snow Point Academy, which was felt the world over. Locals report having seen a massive beam of white and green magic piece the sky for almost 30 seconds before leaving behind a magical aurora which has yet to dissipate. Due to the nature of the blast several Ex students of the secretive school reported to the hidden island only to be forced to call in the Skyline Hospital when they found every student and teacher on the grounds unconscious from the magical backlash! The source of the explosion is yet unknown, but with the sort of magic's practiced at the school it could truly have been anything._

_Currently 221 students and 54 staff are being held in the skyline emergency ward for varying levels of Backlash shock, preliminary reports however state that everyone should recover fully from the effects._

_Additional information will be published as it becomes available in a noon special edition._

Hermione refrained from growling, Talyns ritual had been last night. Why did she let that boy out of her sight? She should know better by now! "Hermione?" Sarah asked worriedly, she focused back on the girl and smiled reassuringly.

"Yes he goes there, but it says everyone's fine so I'm not too worried.."Sarah frowned…

"I don't know about that, Backlash shock is pretty serious, it can permanently damage a person's magic depending on the cause. Go check on your brother ill tell the teachers where you went." Hermione hesitated mulling this over, she didn't doubt he was some variant of 'fine' but she still worried about him. She nodded.

"Where is skyline hospital?" she asked, Sarah grinned.

"I keep forgetting you haven't been in real civilization for very long yet." At Hermione's intrigued look Sarah just laughed.

X X X

sta . sh/0lsbtqo75mn

Hermione starred in awe from her position on the portkey arrival platform at skyline hospital. Sarah hadn't been kidding when she called it a 'flying island'. The base looked like someone had just ripped a chunk of granite out of the ground and charmed it to fly. The buildings curiously enough looked very modern. Built as they were of shining white limestone. The white and glass made for a brilliant display. The place was easily as big as any of the big city hospitals she had ever seen, a veritable city in of itself with a single tower extending high into the sky from the far side of the island. " _Were blocking the platform Hermione."_ Reulan pointed out mildly; pulling herself out of her thoughts she quickly darted off the non emergency arrival platform and made a bee-line for the front doors.

There were four glaring security guards at the doors for the emergency ward, it was easily apparent why, the horde of reports trying to weasel their way inside certainly warranted it. " _a moment and Ill have us inside."_ Reulan explained as he wove expertly through the crowd before letting out a loud hiss which parted the teaming reporters like the red sea. Hermione tried not to cringe at the sudden attention on her and the Firecat as security barely glanced at Reulan before shooing her through the doors.

"Wow." She muttered glancing back. Reulan smirked as only a cat could before answering.

" _You're with me, that's the only credentials' you need."_ he answered smugly, Hermione followed the cat down the halls, a bit bemused.

"That just seems, odd" she finally answered as they took another turn, Reulan shrugged.

" _I am an avatar of a God, child. People do what I tell them to because they know I wouldn't be ordering them about unless it was important. And those that lack respect for my rank have no such feelings about my ability to set them on fire if necessary"_ Hermione nodded hesitantly. Even after years of magic, she was having a hard time thinking in terms of Gods and Spirits, it just wasn't the sort of thing that _happened_. _"It is a bit dramatic, I'll admit, don't worry you'll get used to it eventually."_ She huffed, annoyed, but accepted that. Reulan was older than many countries, she supposed he would know.

" _Now fair warning, your brother is indeed fine, but that's not to say he came out of that ritual…. Unchanged."_ This brought Hermione up short; she glared at the Firecat darkly. Reulan paused and turned back to face her. In his thousands of years if he had learned one thing it was never have your back to a pissed off female.

"And WHAT exactly, is _that_ supposed to mean?" she growled, Reulan steeled himself and got ready to duck if necessary.

" _When the horcrux was removed it released all of the pent up power that had been allowing your brother to resist the fragment so completely, it was suffice it to say, a lot of power. Too much for a human body to survive without tempering. So his magic pulled on a distant fragment of nonhuman heritage that he held to help him survive. Only it, overcompensated. Instead of him gaining a few more of the traits he already possessed it resulted in a complete change. My Lord had not predicted that outcome."_

"Wait, so what did he turn into?" Hermione finally asked once she had picked her jaw up off the floor. Reulan hesitated.

" _It is better to show you then try and explain."_ He finally answered before darting off down the hall far quicker than before. Hermione cursed and ran after him, more than slightly annoyed and worried now. Why did these sorts of things always happen to Harry? " _Here."_ He slid to a stop a few moments later, a frowning nurse eyed then from down the hall before heading their way. Reulan waited regally in front of the door while Hermione glared at him.

"Are you looking for someone?" the nurse asked politely. Hermione nodded and gestured to the firecat.

"He says my brother is in this room, he was at Snow Point." Hermione explained, the woman eyed them oddly.

"Your brother isn't human? How did that happen?" she asked, Hermione's eye twitched.

"This morning apparently, the explosion was him." The nurse blinked.

"Your serious?" she asked, slightly dumbfounded, at Hermione's nod the nurse hummed thoughtfully before giving Reulan another long look before shaking her head. "I can't let you in the room if that's true," she held up her hands to ward off Hermione's angry tirade. "That doesn't mean you can't look in on him from the observation windows. The room is specially shielded due to the fact that he's showing signs of being an extremely powerful Adept mage. Which is even more dangerous if what you're saying is true. He is liable to panic when he wakes up. We can't have what happened at Snow Point occurring here if we can help it." Hermione was never one to deny good logic no matter how much it annoyed her and nodded reluctantly. The nurse smile reassuringly. "He is alright as far as we can tell, even if his magic is unstable right now."

Hermione sighed and nodded again as she was led to the next door down from the one Reulan had indicated. It took a long moment for Hermione to comprehend what she was looking at when she caught her first glimpse through the enchanted wall that acted as a sort of one way mirror. Her first thought was _green_ the second was _snake._ And thirdly _does that thing have wings?_ She blinked, and blinked again. The serpentine form laying on the padded floor of the room held nothing of a human form to it. The coiled body was only about a foot in diameter at its widest point. But the sheer number of coils she could see put the snake at maybe fifteen or twenty feet. The thing that stuck out to her beyond the acid green color with purple diamonds like a rattlesnake down his back, was the feathered _wings_. Her well trained memory went into overdrive riffling through everything she knew about magical creatures to find something like him.

It took only moments for her to remember. A Quetzalcoatl or simple 'Coatal', literal 'winged serpent' both the name of an incredible rare species South American magical winged serpent and that of the God they were named for. Some myths claimed that the serpents were the mortal children of the God. Many fantastic abilities attributed to them, not the least of which was an ability to shapeshift if the serpent was powerful enough. Which she supposed was how Harry had ended up related to one of the snakes. But…. She remembered reading something in the Whitefalls library about crossbreeds. After about five or six generations, the more visible traits of any nonhuman ancestry wouldn't show up under any circumstances but minor magical abilities could persist in a bloodline for centuries. Which explained his parseltongue. The Potters certainly hadn't had any giant magical snakes in the family tree, at least not anytime recently, and the Evans were a muggle family they couldn't have retained a magical ability like that. She hesitated at that thought, thinking back on the brilliant color of the winger serpent and those bright green eyes of Harry's, the green eyes he had inherited from his mother. Maybe the magic could persist in a muggle bloodline.

She groaned softly and rubbed her face before looking imploringly at the nurse "This is going to be one of _those_ days, isn't it?"

sta . sh/01lmb2uu7s93 (talyn-sketch)

sta . sh/01ln3d7z3fcu (talyn-sketch)

sta . sh/04bk3bqn4dk (Talyn-color)

X X X

Oct – 19th

Consciousness was slow to return, pain stinging along her nerves as she tried to remember what had happened. What exactly had she gotten herself into this time? She remembered her office, and the piles of never ending paperwork therein, then. Then what? She strained her mind to remember farther, not an attack, no, than…. Oh.

Memories of the ritual to remove a parasitic soul fragment from one of the first year students filtered back into her mind, but, but the ritual had gone fine. She distinctly remembered now that the magics had shut down as they should. Nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. So….ah, yes. She sighed tiredly. Murphy just loved that kid didn't he? The boy had been completely right, something had gone wrong. However it wasn't the ritual, or even the soul fragment that had caused the explosion, it had been Talyn Ashton himself that had.

Damnit! She was the headmistress of Snow Point! Expect the unexpected! Instead she had overlooked something that had been right in front of her face the whole time, and now had the bruises to prove it. This was absurdly embarrassing.

"Headmistress Corwind?" A quiet voice questioned, she snorted and cracked an eye open only to hiss in pain as the light from the open window stabbed into it like knives. She clamped her eyes closed with a growl, only now registering the splitting reaction headache that was muddling her thoughts. "Sorry, I should have closed the window," the light shining through her eye lids dimmed noticeably. She cracked them open again; when no additional pain greeted her she opened both of them and glanced around for the speaker. She recognized where she was instantly. The aptly named Skyline Hospital. The healer smiling wryly down at her took only a few moments to place. A snow point graduate, Emily Caid 10 years ago, if she remembered correctly.

"Well, I appear to have all my limbs so it can't have been too bad." She huffed, at the healers wince; she gave an internal sigh and wondered if Talyns luck was catching. "Well? Enough looking grim, what happened?" she demanded. Emily smiled faintly.

"Well, first off no one died, so there is always that. Second you're lucky that blast was seen all the way on the mainland, and someone came to check on you lot, because the backlash knocked out everyone on the island." Adriana knew her jaw was hanging open but couldn't really bring herself to care. _Everyone? My god._ She thought, horrified.

"Serious injuries?" she demanded sharply. Emily shook her head.

"Nothing to bad all the same. The rooms shields did their job before collapsing and channeled

the vast majority of the blast upward. We have 51 cases of outright backlash shock, mostly those

who were closest to the bloodmagic wing including yourself so please don't try and use your

magic . All of them should be fine in two or three weeks. Everyone else is down with varying

levels of reaction headaches, as well as assorted broken bones and bruises from falling in

inconvenient places."

"I suppose it could have been worse, what happened to Ashton?" she asked after a long moment of thought.

"No one could get into your office for the student records, were not really sure who everyone is. Your just lucky there's so many of us from snow point on staff who could get through the wards."

"The student who myself, Sierra, and Devaran were worked an extraction ritual on." She explained, Emily grinned.

"Oh! The Coatl! He's fine, still unconscious, but if you had any plans on keeping his power levels a secret you're out of luck, one of the nurses was talking where a reporter could hear her, it's all over the news now." Adriana starred for a long moment.

"Ashton is human," she said after a long moment. Emily gave her a blank look.

"My apologies I forgot you didn't know, his sister turned up with a Firecat and explained more or less what caused the transformation if not the how or why of it." She finally said, before pulling out a small square sheet of crystal and tapping it before handing it over. Adriana sighed and looked at the picture almost afraid of what she was going to see. It was the security feed from an observation room. Curled up in a rough coil on a cushioned mat was a violet, black, and acid green snake with long similarly colored wings. She closed her eyes tiredly.

"Aside from somehow being turned into a Coatl, is there anything wrong with him?" she asked tightly. Emily hmm'ed about that for a moment.

"Well, yes. We had to put a limiter on him when we found him. He was sparking like a short circuit! Honestly, I understand Snow Points secrecy, I went there myself! But to not tell the Council that there was another Sorcerer Adept?" The headmistress's mind ground to a halt at those final two words.

"What?" she demanded, Emily blinked.

"You didn't know?" she asked, mystified.

"That boy was a master class mage before he walked into that room, I knew the removal of that parasitic soul fragment would increase his magic to Adept level, but, _Sorcerer Adept?_ " she all but hissed. The last Sorcerer Adept had been An'desha! Nearly 8000 years ago! And before that Urtho, and the Dark Adept Ma'ar. It was thought that with the breaking of magic, power like that would be a thing relegated to myth, but not it would seem, anymore.

X X X

Oct 21st

The Lamia's name was Alexis, if he remembered right, she had been here for several hours now translating for him. Waking had been, unpleasant. Abruptly discovering you now lacked arms and legs and the transformation was likely permanent was _not_ a great way to start the day. Add into that a migraine of epic proportions due to something called 'backlash shock' and he was not in all that great of a mood. Alexis had been very patient with him though and had been helping him with figuring out how to move in his new form. After two hours of trial and error he could carefully circle the small room and sit up with his body coiled up more or less neatly without getting his wings twisted up. But all of that still paled in the face of the fact that IT was gone! The disgusting oily feeling he had never really known was there was gone. His mind felt lighter as did his magic. Even with the limiter on he still felt like he had been holding his breath his entire life and could finally breath.

" _You're doing quite well you know."_ Alexis pointed out amused, Talyn hissed wordlessly, his head resting on one bright green and dark purple coil as he stared moodily at the door. Alexis couldn't really hold the teen's surly attitude against him. His situation warranted quite a bit more than a bit of grumbling, he could glower at the door all he wanted in her opinion.

" _You said that the Headmistress would be able to talk to me today?"_ he finally asked, Alexis nodded.

" _Indeed, she had things to take care of with the school."_ Talyn shot her a look of faint annoyance.

" _Why won't you tell me what happened anyways?"_ he asked, frustrated. Alexis laughed softly, grinning.

" _She wanted to tell you what happened herself. Something about wanting to see the look on your face and record it for posterity."_ she drawled, Talyn cringed internally wondering just how much trouble he had caused. A knock at the door made him look away from the snickering lamia and back to the door which opened a moment later.

"I see you're awake Mr. Ashton, feeling any better?" the Headmistress asked amused, her left hand was wrapped in bandages and the right, although uncovered, showed the shiny skin of freshly healed burns.

" _Well enough, what happened?"_ He answered; Adriana smiled faintly once Alexis had translated.

"Well, as you've probably figure out the ritual went off without a hitch, you're now free of the parasitic fragment, but we did indeed overlook a few things and as a result you're going to be having difficulties. If you remember a while back Devaran told you that the reason the fragment couldn't control you was because your magic was almost completely being taken up by forcing the intrusion back correct?" at Talyns nod she continued. "Think of it this way, the fragment had been pushing on a revolving door with your magic pushing the other side pushing back, when we removed the fragment your magic didn't just stop pushing, and all the force that was being exerted against the fragment was released in only a few moments. Suffice it to say that ended up being a great deal more magic then we had ever considered. The rituals containment magic directed most of the blast upwards, but it still rendered the entire school unconscious." The headmistress was grinning now, at the horrified look on the snakes face. "No one was seriously hurt however, there are a few dozen cases of relatively mild backlash shock, but they should be fine in two weeks or so. I've called a temporary vacation and school will not be reopening for three weeks. So you also have plenty of time to recover and get back to what classes you can."

Talyn was pulled out of his shock by her final words. What classes he _can?_ He asked as much the headmistress sighed. "I had wanted to run a few more tests before telling you about this, but I suppose I can't put it off. Your magic was damaged in the blast, or was already damaged and the fragments removal just uncovered it. we're not sure of the extent but higher magic might be out of reach for you for a while. The damage is likely fixable. There is some good news though. You see magic isn't simply one blanket ability that everyone has. There are a number of what are called 'Gifts' of which what you would think of as 'magic' is known as 'mage gift.' In the core there are a number of channels, each channel is dedicated to a gift. The 'width' of the channel determines the power of the gift your mage gift was mostly if not almost completely blocked by the fragment and we never had an accurate measure of your power. The reason you knocked everyone out with a blast that could be felt the world over, is because you are a sorcerer adept. It's the highest known level of magic without being considered a demigod. There have only been perhaps a dozen such Mages in known history. The most recent was An'desha Shen Jor'etha who was born just before the second cataclysm. We had thought that because magic was damaged by that second blast, that sorcerer adepts couldn't exist anymore, something you have proven wrong." She paused and considered the slightly glazed look in the snake's eyes before sighing.

"Talyn?" she called, the snake twitched and focused back on her sharply. She smiled apologetically. "But that sadly is not the end of it. "The snake made a faint noise that sounded suspiciously like a whimper. "There is a relatively rare side effect of blacklash shock of the sort you experienced, however you got lucky, and you're not the most dramatic example of this to be seen. That title inarguably belongs to a Herald many thousands of years ago. " she paused looking frowning at Talyn who had made an odd choked hiss, the lamia started giggling. The headmistress quirked an eyebrow up. "Something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" she asked drily. The Lamia snickered again before answering.

"He said 'Finally! Someone weirder then me!'" she answered her eyes glinting with amusement, the Coatl just glared at this, annoyed. Adriana sighed, faintly exasperated. Given what she knew of Talyn's past as Harry Potter she could understand the sentiment, but this wasn't the time for this.

"Indeed, but that doesn't mean you got off lightly." She drawled, Talyn looked at her with an expression of despair, no doubt dreading what was to come. "Unlike the Herald I mentioned who had _every single_ naturally blocked channel in his core blasted open, he had something on the order of thirty documented gifts before his death. You appear to only have blasted four. One of them is proving a little difficult to identify but as far as we can tell you've gained a very powerful Healing gift, as well as Mindspeech and Empathy. Empathy is usually found paired with Healing and Mindspeech is as common as the leaves on the trees. So no one is going to look at you funny for those, but the unidentified gift is proving hard to pinpoint. Whatever it is has been blasted open to nearly the same extent as your mage gift so we are rather hesitant to take that limiter off until we can get an idea of what you're dealing with." Talyn stared at her for a long moment before letting his head fall back to rest on his coiled body with a faint thud and a far to human sounding groan.

"Don't worry kid, it'll be fine." Alexis reassured only for Talyn to hiss viciously at her, his eyes a bit wild.

" _DON'T JINX IT!"_ He all just shrieked at her.

X X X

Half a world away, a certain old man watched a news report on a crystalline screen. He thought very little of the muggle influenced magical device, but he wasn't the sort to let a source of valuable information escape him simply because he didn't like the format it came in. The blast of powerful magic had nearly knocked him to the ground that afternoon, and he was desperate to find out what was going on. The explosion hadn't originated in Britten and he was at a loss at to what could have caused it. perhaps Voldemort was up to something, Snape had reported that the Dark Lord hadn't been seen since the day before, who knew where he could be and what he was doing!

so he had turned to the international news to see what he could learn, and it was far worse then he had thought, the blast had been felt everywhere. Such terrible power couldn't be allowed to exist, whatever had caused it must be contained or destroyed for the good of the entire world.

The current news was on the supposed source of the blast, now found to be a school of magic somewhere in South America. the reported was going on about the entire school being rendered unconscious as he spoke in front of the main entrance to the hospital where the students and staff had been brought. Something caught his eye behind the reporter, a girl with bushy brown hair and a massive red and white cat at her side. A glint entered his eyes. well, what do we have here? It would appear that miss. Granger wasn't as good at hiding as he had thought. And if she was at the hospital, perhaps Harry was as well?


	18. Centuries

_Parsltongue_

_ Mindspeach _

XXX

Chapter 18 – Centuries –fall out boy.

_X X X_

2 weeks later

Talyn looked around himself in quiet embarrassment, the two Adepts that had been attempting to teach him basic containment looked a bit singed even with the massively powerful shields they had thrown up. The room looked to be a complete loss. The once white walls were scorched black, not by soot but from the actual stone itself burning. He had _burnt rock. By accident._ Although the rooms shields did seem to have contained the blast. So there was that much at least.

"Well, that was fun." Muttered Dawnwind, the Talyadras Adept wasn't usually seen outside of her peoples ancient hidden tree cities, the Vale's, but her and her partner Nighthawk had agreed to come seeing as their people had the best (and really only) decent records about sorcerer adepts. His first thought when he'd had them explained to him had been 'forest elves' thanks to some of the fantasy books Hermione had ambushed him with before. Vera had laughed at him, and explained it was more like amazons then elves, but he had the idea more or less. The Talyadras and their cousins the shin'a'in weren't quiet human anymore, but they certainly weren't elves. Apparently some goddess had changed them thousands of years ago so they could fix the damage caused by the Cataclysm, he vaguely remembered them being mentioned in history class. Apparently most of the vales were located in Russia or there abouts, along with many of the other countries mentioned in the history of the cataclysm and the later Mage Storms. Apparently those countries still existed as well. With the proper magic's you could apparently loose a few smallish countries in Russia and not notice.

"You and I have very different ideas of fun, Dawn." Nighthawk grumbled, brushing soot off his dark blue and silver tunic. The other mage just smirked. "Your smiling, you figured something out didn't you?" he demanded, Dawnwind shrugged.

"It's not his magic that's damaged. I think I spotted the problem just before he blew everything up."

" _So you know what's wrong then?"_ Talyn asked hopefully, leaning to use mind magic to talk had been a bit of an adventure resulting in many headaches for everyone in the hospital and a few minor explosions, but he more or less had it so far as basic speech went. Hermione had been very jealous of what she was calling telepathy. Apparently she did have the gift though; she would be learning it properly however. Not the hack and bash emergency basics he'd gotten. Luckily whatever was wrong with his magic didn't extend to what were generally referred to as 'mind gifts' so the telepathy things worked for the most part.

"I think so" Dawnwind agreed slowly trying to think of a way to explain this properly. "Ok, try and look at it this way. If your core were like a giant cistern of water, then your ability to regulate the amount of water that goes into your spells is like the valve. Normally you can adjust the amount of water coming out, but it looks like that part of your magic is more or less broken. Your valve is still there but not only is it stuck in either all the way on or off; it's full of cracks and holes. Every time you 'turn on' your magic, not only do you over power everything but the magic doesn't even really end up in the spell to begin with." Nighthawk was starring at her along with Talyn.

"You got all that from one look?" he finally asked, Dawnwind looked at him, puzzled.

"Yes?" Nighthawk laughed softly and shook his head even as Dawnwind frowned thoughtfully. "I need to take a closer look at your channels to determine just how bad it is though, and how to go about fixing it."

" _Alright?"_ Talyn shrugged, his serpentine body rippling with the motion. They had been doing that last week. When he had been unconscious they had checked over his channels. That was how they knew he was a sorcerer adept. So he really didn't see anything wrong with that. Dawnwind nodded a light frown still on her face.

"Good, I need you to let me through your shields then." Talyn huffed at that. Those shields had taken him most of the weak to build and even then they were pretty damn flimsy. They would never really keep anyone out of his mind; they only put up a divider between his thoughts and the minds around him. Giving him an 'edge' to know where his mind ended and everyone else began. Working carefully he turned his attention to his mental shields and only a moment later felt the light tap of Dawnwind requesting entrance. The whole barrier shivered like a soap bubble in a high wind, rippling and bending as he tried to pull her through it without breaking the damn thing. A moment later she was through, her magic's flitted though his mind making him twitch. It was like having a tiny bug skittering through his mind, the touch was barely there but it _itched_ , and he had to resist the urge to swat her away. After a few minutes of light touches and brief sparks of pain from the damaged channels she withdrew.

Talyn hissed and gave his head a sharp shake, the itchy feeling of having someone in his head was slowly abating but with her out now there was nothing he could really do about it but sit and suffer through it. "Well I was right about what's damaged, it's your control that shot not your actual magic." Dawnwind finally said after a few moments of thoughtful silence. "But it's odd." she added frowning.

" _Why?"_ He asked even if he really and truly did NOT want to know.

"Well, it's the damage itself. It's not recent." She explained after a moment to the other two's confusion.

"How can it not be? He wasn't blowing things up until that ritual!" Nighthawk demanded. Dawnwind shot him a look and he shut up looking irritated.

"I think it was the leech. It was more or less plugging up all the holes and using them to drain away his magic. So not only were you not leaking, but by the time your magic got to the damaged 'valve' there was just enough for the spell and not enough to really cause any other problems." That.. strangely made sense, in a lot of ways.

" _Wait, so… that damn leech was actually helping me?"_ Talyn demanded, Dawnwind shrugged.

"In a way. If it hadn't been there your magic would have likely been either continuously draining away or things would have been…. Very _interesting_ for the UK until you finally blew it off the map."

" _Can you fix it?"_ Talyn asked hopefully. Dawnwind and Nighthawk exchanged rather dubious looks.

"I have no idea. We specialize in containing and controlling powerful wild magics, but I'm not really sure Node and lay line shielding is going to work here…not permanently anyways. But we might be able to come up with something to at least keep you from blowing things up. A real fix will likely be up to you however."

X X X

A knock on the door brought Talyn out of his thoughts, he hissed softly looking over as Kira cracked the door open and poked her head in. the Lamia was grinning. "So! I heard that someone got a makeover!?" she teased, Talyn glared making her snicker. The door was pushed open the rest of the way revealing that Kira wasn't in her human form, her white and gold boa patterned scales glinted in the light coming in the window as she slithered in. Soren rounded the corner as well also not bothering to pretend to be human.

" _Why are you both in those forms?"_ He asked curiously. Kira snorted.

" _Using transformation magic's is kind of hard with a reaction headache"_ she answered dryly. Talyn winced and looked away ruffling his wings in embarrassment. Soren in dragon form growled softly, his mind voice cutting through Talyns shields like they weren't even there.

" _Oh stop sulking! It's hardly your fault, the headmistress was responsible for the ritual, if anyone's getting blamed its her!"_ Talyn jumped nearly falling over in surprise at the sharp voice. The sudden mindspeech destabilized his shield for a moment and Soren's emotions and surface thoughts poured through as well as his words. Talyn forced the barrier back up breathing harshly for a moment thinking over what he had felt from the dragon. Soren meant what he said, he wasn't just being nice, and he honestly thought the headmistress was at fault she should have done more research before jumping in like that.

Soren stared him down, Talyn hesitated before ducking his head and looking away in embarrassment. He wasn't used to anyone but Hermione caring, and even then it was still strange. _"Thanks"_ he finally answered. The dragon snorted and gave him a mock regal look.

" _You should be! If it weren't for me you would just sit here and mope! Bah!"_ Talyn laughed, the stuttering hiss earning a laugh from Kira.

" _You laugh like your high on helium!"_ she cackled. Talyn glared at the laughing Lamia.

" _I do not!"_ he countered, outraged. The answering laughter from both told him that, unfortunately, it would seem he did.

X X X

The city was bustling with activity once more. It had taken a day or two for everything to get back to normal after the shockwave. But the talk of the town was still the revelation of Talyn as a sorcerer adept. White Gryphon had good reason to be twittering about it too. They still remembered the days of the Mage of Silence, and the Wars. Every year they held a memorial for those who had died to end the mage wars and for their lost creator. Sadly she had missed the last one; the next wouldn't happen until early June. Hermione smiled faintly as a pair of barely fledged baby gryphons raced passed her, their slightly exasperated mother following close behind.

It was near sunset now, the ocean dark as the sun set behind the city on the plains of Africa. Glowing mage lights lit up the terraces of the cliff city in a variable rainbow of colors. It seemed the people of white gryphon were taking this as an impromptu excuse to party of a bit. Not that they or their cousins the Shin'a'in or the Talyadras _ever_ passed up an excuse to party. Snorting at the antics of the locals Hermione left the stairs and headed down the path on her terrace. It was time to get home, school had been interesting today. Runes especially had just about made her drool, the sheer number of applications! Distracted by her thoughts she never saw the glamored man step out of the shadows behind her and follow her down the ledge. The man waited until they were in a relatively empty spot before speaking.

"Hello Miss. Granger. I've been wondering where you'd gotten to, but I must insist you return to school now." Hermione's heart froze at that voice, she spun on her heel ducking as she went, but not fast enough. A bolt of red light collided with her face, as darkness descended on her mind she felt the wrench of a portkey and Reulans enraged yowl as the Firecat appeared in a flash of fire and lunged at her and Dumbledore. But they were already gone. Reulan stared at the spot his charge had been in only a moment before, rage and horror warring for command of him mind. He had lost her, _he had lost her!_ His enraged howl brought people running from all over the city.

X X X

Talyn went still and stared out the window as the afternoon sun. Something was wrong. He stretched his wings, giving them a half flap to loosen the up while glancing around warily. The last time he'd felt like this had been the day before his name had come out of the goblet. Shifting uncomfortably he uncoiled and recoiled his body before forcing himself to go back to his book. Carefully turning the pages with the tip of his tail. When an hour later the door just about exploded off its hinges Talyn jumped and spat venom before he could even think. The black poison slid off a quickly conjured shield. It took a moment for Talyn to recognize Vera, the gryphon looked like she'd been electrocuted. Her body feather all but standing on end with alarm.

"TALYN!" she screeched all but teleporting to his side, he flinched back, wondering if she was pissed over the explosion or something and reaching out to talk to her with mindspeech only to be frozen in place by her next words. "YOUR SISTERS BEEN KIDNAPPED!" Talyn was utterly still for a long moment before a low dangerous hiss escaped him, Vera paused, eyeing him warily. Suddenly remembering what she had been told about his new rank and his magics current 'completely uncontrolled' status. The room began to shake slightly with the magic the young coatl began to exude. It was undirected and very very angry. A moment later two more people popped into the room. Both of them where dressed in black pants with a grey long sleeved shirt and a silver vest. Embroidered on the shoulder was an insignia that looked like a stylized gryphon. Vera eyed those recognizing White Gryphon's elite guards, The Silver Gryphons.

"Mr. Ashton, we need you to try and control yourself, we need to know if someone specific would have taken your sister. The entirety of the Silver Gryphons has been mobilized to find her but she could be anywhere. As a non permanent resident of the city we don't have her magical signature on file and can't track her well." Talyn blinked and turned to stare at the man. The man held his ground though and didn't back down. Talyn was silent for a long moment before answering.

" _Albus Dumbledore. She will be somewhere in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I AM COMING WITH."_ The man opened his mouth to argue with that but Talyn snarled. He pulled himself up like a striking cobra, his frill of feathers flaring out along with his wings. " ** _I AM COMING"_** He all but blasted at them. The man rocked back on his heels, wide eyed.

"I have no particular desire to deny you accompanying the strike force, but you have no idea how to fight in that form and you magic is unstable." Talyn stared at him his expression going distant, before with another snarl he started to glow. He remembered what had been in the book about Cotals that Hermione had given him, he didn't care that only the oldest of the serpents were supposed to be able to achieve human form, he didn't care that his magic was screaming as he forced the transformation. He was not leaving Hermione with that monster, and he WOULD be there to rescue her.

Vera backed away from Talyn shielding her eyes from the bright glow with one wing. The two silvers cursed and backed out of the room. With a few moments the glow died down leaving a gasping form on the padded floor. Vera lowered her wing slowly and squinted at the prone form. She clacked her beak. "Talyn you idiot!" she grumbled before reaching over to roll the almost, but not quiet human form over. Green eye peered up at her dazedly. "Moron." She observed blandly. Talyn scowled, and then seemed to realize he had eyebrows and lips to scowl with and all but shot to his feet. Vera wrapped a talon around his arm a moment later to keep him on his feet as he nearly fell over. The wings he had retained making him overbalance. Talyn found his balance quickly enough, he hadn't been a snake long enough to have forgotten how to walk. Vera considered him curiously as the two Silvers poked their heads back into the room. Talyn was back to looking, well, if not human then humanoid. His previously black hair was full of green and violet feathers looking more like the mane of his cotal form then regular human hair. The features of his face were also a little narrower and smoother; she would bet he had fangs hidden away as well. The rest of his body (she wondered how long it would take for him to notice he was naked) was human enough but with pale skin broken up by swaths of green scales. And razor sharp talons on both hands and feet, not to mention the wings as long as he was tall folded at his back. The sight of something flicking by his feet also revealed that he had retained his feather tufted tail as well.

For a spontaneous and forced transformation with wild magic she gave it a definite 8/10. He looked very nice and fearsome, but he had been aiming for human so he lost points there. "ow" he said after a long moment of examining his claws and looking over his shoulders at his wings.

"Talyn." Vera asked after a long moment. He looked at her curiously. "Not that I don't enjoy the view, but cloths." Talyn blinked and looked down, then squawked in horror. Went to conjure a pair of pants and then realized his magic would never cooperate with something that delicate. One of the Silvers took pity on him, conjuring and holding out a pair of dark shorts. The teen had them on his record time, managing to not cut himself with his claws in the process and figure out how to get the pants around his tail.

Some dignity restored he looked at the two Silvers defiantly. "Now can I go?" he asked tartly. They both blinked before the younger looking of the two started to laugh.

"You don't mess around kid." He said with a grin, Talyn smirked in answer before speaking once more.

"Nope. After all, the castle is unplottable, you can only find the place if you've been there before. You'd have been wondering the Scottish countryside for weeks." The silvers blinked before groaning.

"Fuck."

"If it's any consolation I have a real-time map of the castle that shows exactly where everyone is at all times. "The intrigued look he was given at that made him laugh.

X X X *mission impossible theme plays* ;)

"A _candy shop._ You want us to break into a _candy shop_." The incredulous silence that surrounded the elite strike team was massive. The newly discovered Sorcerer Adept was completely unmoved by this and looked more than slightly amused to be honest. Stormflight was still more then slightly dubious about letting the kid come with them, Sorcerer Adept or not. But the kid was right about the unplottability of the castle. They would have never found the place if he hadn't led them to the train tracks and then followed them to the station here in Hogsmead. Apparently the locals never really thought about this particular protection, as everyone on the island went to this school it was only effective against foreigners. The map though, the map was a work of art. Every detail and in real time. Their commander and all but begged to have the map for a few weeks after this to study the enchantments on it, he really wanted one for the city. When Ashton had told them two of the maps creators were still alive and he would put him in contact with them he'd all but danced. It certainly made up for the mobilization, not that they wouldn't have done it without something in return. _No one_ , wanted the world first Sorcerer Adept in millennia being blackmailed by someone. And they didn't doubt that's what this was about one way or another. The kid ends up in the news, and two weeks later his adoptive sister is kidnapped?

With a sigh he glanced over at the map again, held in the second in commands hands as the man kept track of the professors and prefects. Luckily the headmaster was still in his office and far away from the dot labeled 'Hermione Granger'. The kid speaking again drew him out of his thoughts.

"Yes I want you to break into a candy shop. There's a trapdoor in the cellar." He leaned over and pointed to the edge of the grounds on the map, and to one of the several hidden passages leading off the edges. "It's this one. There are seven total on here. Four are known to the teachers and at least one other is collapsed. That leaves two and the other comes out on the grounds rather than in the castle and the headmaster knows that one two." The commander sighed and nodded eyeing the candy shop in annoyance before waving their three ward breakers forward. In total they had a team of twenty here. Given the number of professors who were all at least Master level and the Headmaster who was likely an Adept they would need the firepower if it came down to a fight.

The wards on the shop were nothing special and came down in five minutes. Talyn led them behind the counter and down the steps into the cellar. The group eyed the floor along the walls looking for the irregularities that would indicate a trap door. The teen was staring at him. "What?"He whispered. The kid rolled his eyes.

"You're standing on it, move." Stormflight blinked and looked down; there was absolutely nothing about this patch of floor that looked any different the patch next to it. He moved all the same. The teen reached down and grabbed onto something he couldn't see and pulled, the wooden trap door lifted free without a sound. They all stared. Now that it was open they could clearly see the wooden door and the heavy metal ring attached to it. Stormflight was rather perturbed; he'd been standing the damn ring and not felt any irregularity. That was one hell of an illusion. It must key you in if you had come through from the other way; otherwise the boy wouldn't have been able to see it either.

The commander grabbed Talyn's shoulder when the boy moved to head down the stairs, his wings flicked in irritation but he stepped back so the ward breakers could do their work. When no traps except the truly ancient wards to hide the entrance were detected the teen was waved forward. It would seem he was right, this passage was lost to time. The building was not quiet so old, but the foundation certainly was. The shop front had probably been rebuilt a hundred times on this foundation, no one ever realizing the secret passageway hidden away in the cellar. Although perhaps the maker of the candy shop had know. After all if you knew were a secret passage into a school was and could get a hold of the land what would you build? Then make sure one or two would know where it was. Perfect setup. Stormflight shoot his head, amused.

It took nearly twenty minutes before they reached the stairs leading up inside the castle itself. Another ward check later and they were squeezing through the narrow entrance and into the castle. The hall was devoid of portraits, something Talyn had warned them about. This place was blanketed in magical portraits, they didn't want the alarm blown to soon.

A series of invisibility spells later, all keyed so they could see each other and they were sneaking though the halls. They all halted when Talyn froze staring at something down the hall. The Silvers all started edging for the walls, ready for a fire fight when a….cat? A _cat_ walked into view. The boy leading the group glared at it, the cat glared right back. _Shit, it can see us._ Stormflight thought, aghast. The invisibility spells they were using were nothing to laugh at, that the cat could see them was astonishing. Before they could worry further Talyn hissed something jabbing his wand in the direction of the cat. The red bolt of magic caught it before it could move making it slump to the floor. He blinked, half expecting some alarm to go off. But the only sound was Talyn quiet _"Ha!"_ of amusement.

"I have been wanting to do that for ages." He muttered.

"What's with the cat?" asked the commander. The kid shrugged.

"It's the caretakers; it'll start screeching if it finds people out of bed after curfew." The commander nodded, glad the kid had knocked it out before it could start making a racket.

"How much farther?" he asked.

"Up two floors and down the west hall. She's in the guest wing. Fourth room." Was the prompt answer. They continued on, nearing the central staircase when a soft hiss from the middle of the group had everyone flattening themselves against the wall again and looking at the Silver with the map. He inspected it for another moment before indicating two and the hall they had been headed for. Probably the prefects doing their rounds. The teachers would be alone. A minute later the light from the two older student's wands lit the hall. The two walked by quickly, never sensing the twenty Silvers and one Sorcerer Adept pressed against the wall under invisibly spells. They waited nearly two minutes before the map holder signaled them forward once more.

"Watch the stairs, they move. And the 12th is a trick one, don't step on it." Talyn whispered before heading out into the halls. They all wondered just what he meant by the fact that they moved. The question was answered when upon arriving on the small landing the downward staircase suddenly detached and swung around to lead to a different landing. The Silvers stared. Talyn headed up the steps without fear skipping the twelfth like he had said. They followed him up dubiously the stairs not moving while they were on them, only to swing away once everyone was off of it. Several of them eyed the moving stairs before exchanging wary looks. This place came off as a fun house at first. Trick steps and moving stairs. But to someone who didn't know it like the back of their own hand it would be deadly.

Once up the stairs it was only a few moments to reach the room where the girl was being kept. The ward breakers went to work, picking apart the layers of alarms and defenses. Cracking the door open two of the Silvers edged in scanning the room for further traps. They didn't catch the suddenly empty picture frame half hidden behind a curtain. A few seconds later the two came back out Hermione slung over ones shoulder. Talyn was at his side in a moment, looking panicked.

"She seems to be fine, decided to keep her unconscious in case she already has control spells on her. Better safe than sorry." Talyn hesitated but nodded reluctantly. He moved to say something when a muffed curse cut him off.

"Headmasters on the move! We must have missed something!"

"Shit, move!" the commander snapped. Talyn shot off down the hall, the Silvers in rapid pursuit, someone barely remembering to hit Hermione with the invisibility spell at the last moment. Two corridors and they were racing down a back stair case down two levels then down another hall only to go through a tapestry and come out on the other side of the castle. Another run down a corridor and they burst out of a side door near a group of greenhouses. A sudden explosion cut them off from the forest. They spun around shifting into a defensive formation around Talyn and the Silver carrying the girl. Albus Dumbledore stood by the wall of the castle, blue eyes like chips of ice.

"Return the girl and perhaps I'll let you live." He ordered sharply. The commander snorted.

"This girl is now considered a citizen of White Gryphon, we would hardly return her to her kidnapper." He pointed out dryly, before signaling the team. A moment later the rear group cast a bunker shield while the ten in the front unleashed a hail of spell fire. The brief look of shock on the man's face told them that he was not used to having his orders disobeyed. Stormflight grinned and unleashed his favorite spell chain. A variety of bludgeoning spells an explosive hex and a spell which turned the ground to quicksand. It took the old man a moment to get his barring under an assault by ten Master level mages, but he managed. Definitely an Adept he thought grimly as the glow of a shield pierced the spellfire before a deeply purple shockwave shot at them. The shield held but they were all knocked back. The teen growled having managed to stay on his feet and shot a burning bolt of dark red at the Headmaster. It was deflected upward to hit the castle wall, blowing a hole the size of a car in it. The headmaster stared at Talyn in astonishment at the sheer power behind the spell which Stormflight recognized as a simple reducto only massively over powered.

"Fuck off Albus." He snapped harshly. The headmaster looked blank for a moment before smirking.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. Is that you? Been meddling in magic you shouldn't have I see. I'm surprised, even Tom's transformation to an monster took longer than a few months, I can only imagine the dark magic's you've been playing with." The old man shook his head mournfully. "Perhaps if you return now some of the damage can still be mitigated." The teen just rolled his eyes.

"Idiot." He answered before the team, rather than Talyn returned fire once more. The Headmasters shield absorbed everything, the old mans wand a blur as he deflected some spells and conjured objects to absorb others. The one thing he seemed to not realize though was that the point of the barrage was to hide them from sight. Their invisibility, although hampered by the bunker shield, was still intact. The group used the cover of the spell fire to make a steady run for the gates and the edge of the wards.

Albus figured out their game quickly enough, transfiguring a pack of stone wolves to try and block their escape. The wolves were destroyed in quick order, the retreat not really hampered at all.

Barely a few dozen feet from the wards Albus finally had enough and threw caution to the winds the resulting blast of yellow magic shattered the shield sending four of the shielding team to the ground in shock at the backlash. A smug smirk on his face Albus moved to hit them again but was cut off by a sudden flash of green light that nearly winged his head. He ducked instinctively away, only recognizing it as a color changing curse and not the avada kadavra to late. He straightened and saw harry, in the strange winged form he currently bore grinning at him as the team reached the edge of the wards.

Snarling he shot his own death curse at the team trying to hit the girl. The boys eyes widened and his lunged knocking them to the ground and out of the way of the spell at the last moment. Albus frowned at the miss but aimed for where the man and his charge had fallen; prepared to cast again.

Only for the two to vanish with the blue flash of a portkey. He turned his attention back to Harry to see the boy's eyes glowing green, wings half spread as the feathers lit up as well. The shockwave of electric green magic the wings launched at him looked like nothing so much as a solid wall of killing curse. Albus flinched back conjuring as fast as he could to try and block it even as one of the other men tacked Harry from behind and activated another portkey. The resulting flash far brighter than the others as the teen's magic violently overloaded the spell. Within moments all the remained at the spot was the scorch marks of the battle and one very dead meddling old man.

X X X

The wrench of the portkey shocked Talyn out of his rage. The spinning seemed far worse than it should have been. The world turning into a grey green blur as everything melted together. With another wrench he and the Silver who had grabbed him, Stormflight, were thrown free of the portkey. Talyn had only a moment to taken in the green jungle canopy before they hit the trees. Tearing through the branches and leaves with a crash that sent every bird for half a mile flying. Moments later they hit the ground, branches thudding down around them. Talyns vision grayed as pain spiked through his wing. Broken he thought woozily as he tried to cling to consciousness. He wasn't sure how long he tried to fight his way back out of the grey before finally slipping into darkness. A soft hissed and a glint of dead white eyes peering at him from the underbrush was the last thing he saw.

X X X


	19. Hang On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by some lovely hard apple cider, this stories going to make me an alcoholic. Also, poor Stormflight, he doesn’t get paid enough to put up with the kinda shit that happens around Talyn/Harry. At any rate this is your Christmas present! For those of you who celebrate that anyways. I’m hoping to get chapter 20 out on new years day so we’ll see how that goes, you get to see dear old umbitch get in a argument with a gryphon lawyer, it should be fun.  
> Also! This story has a tumblr now.I'm on tumblr all the time so you can come bother me if im not updating fast enough or post fanart, there a few things up there already.  
> Snowpointacademyofmagic tumblr com
> 
> Also one thing about harry/talyns name. Harrys name is still Harry. This isn’t one of those stories where Harry changes his name and its all. “such’in’such the wizard formerly known as Harry” the way the spells to change harrys name worked was essentially adding to his name, not changing it. so technically his name is now Harry Talyn James Potter-Ashton. His Hogwarts friends know him as Harry, and the snow point ones know his as Talyn.

            The sandpaper feeling of a rough tongue licking his face dragged Talyn back to awareness; he batted the creature away blindly. It hissed and nipped at his fingers. He jerked his hand back and cracked an eye open only to come face to face with the dead white eyes and black scales of a Wrysa. He noted absently that from this close you could see the pupils, their eyes apparently weren’t just blank white. Oddly enough they seemed to be like a pointed plus shaped.

            Talyn opened his other eye and stared at the Wrysa flatly, it stared back – barely a foot from his face. Almost without thought his wild magic lashed out. The Wrysa’s jaws gaped open – giving him far too good a look at the two inch fangs that lined its mouth, its eyes glowing as it tried to absorb his magic. With a mental curse he tried to pull back but the dog like monster had a hold of his magic now and kept trying to drag more out of him. Unlike last time though, Talyn wasn’t going to run out, with his full reserves available to him now the Wrysa had found a feast without end, but it was about to learn a very important lesson about your eyes being bigger than your stomach. Slowly the white glow of the Wrysa’s eyes began to change, the green of Talyns own magic beginning to overtake the white.

Barely five seconds had passed when a soundless flash of bright green eclipsed the jungle clearing. Talyns magic reacting in a violent and unexpected fashion for the second time in barely an hour. Both the Wrysa and Talyn slumped to the ground out cold as the light faded.

When Stormflight finally woke up nearly three hours later, it was to find Talyn petting the Wrysa like it was a normal dog. A mildly perturbed look on his face. The Silver stared, Talyn smiled weakly. “Um….it likes me?”

X X X

“Seriously?” Stormflight asked for what was probably then tenth time in as many minutes. Talyn shrugged and studied the Wrysa sitting in front of him again. He tilted his head to the side; it copied him, watching intently. Talyn completely understood the Silvers incredulity, but he also knew that whatever it might have been, the Wrysa was no longer a threat to him.

He could feel its mind in a way that was decidedly odd. It seemed whatever his magic had done had linked the Wrysa to his mind and magic. And even though he could feel his magic draining into it, he couldn’t feel any kind of actual power loss, it was like the Wrysa was a part of his magic now. whether the mind thing was from that or the fact that Wrysa naturally had a hive mind at the pack level he didn’t know. He got the distinct feeling that it was a hell of a lot smarter for it now. Although from what he could sense of the Wrysas thoughts it wasn’t hyper violent like the books seemed to think. It was without a doubt a predator, but it was more its tenacity that had been increased rather than its aggression. That combined with intelligence made for a dangerous combo. This actually made more sense than the aggression. The original white Wrysa predated the Mage Wars and were said to have been created to be a better hunter and tracker only to prove uncontrollable. It made sense to make them more determined than it did to make them more violent, they weren’t guard dogs.

Reinforcing this theory was the simple fact that it hadn’t shown any interest in taking a bite out of Stormflight, seemingly quite content with the magic it gained from its connection with Talyn. Stormflight had even gone so far as to create a mage light and float it all but in front of the Wrysa’s nose. Aside of glaring at it then Stormflight it hadn’t done anything.

“It’s weird!” Talyn just rolled his eyes, the Wrysa snorted. Stormflight eyed them both dubiously. “Commands never going to believe this.” He finally said.

“They will when they get here.” Stormflight just groaned.

“Right, fine – you do that. I need to call in; I’m going to head off a bit for that, I don’t want him eating the spell. “Talyn just nodded looking back at the Wrysa for a moment before picking up a decent sized stick. The Wrysa perked up, its long tail twitching like a cats. Talyn threw the stick and the creature was gone in a flash; a moment later it was back with the stick. Stormflight blinked once before resolutely turning around and heading into the forest. He didn’t get paid enough for this shit.

X X X

Talyn smiled faintly as the Wrysa raced back and forth along the group of Silvers that had come to pick them up, acting very much like the dog it was based on, of course said antics were making the recovery team twitchy. Heres this supposedly vicious beast that will drain you magic and then _eat you_ and here it is bouncing around chasing a stick like a puppy. Stormflight for his part was near the front of the group flatly ignoring the Wrysa and Talyn.

At least Hermione had made it to the city alright. The Healers only had a preliminary report when the Silvers had left the city, but apparently she was fine. There was residue of a number of spells and potions in her system, but nothing that couldn’t be removed with a few well placed counter spells and maybe a purification ritual. At least something had gone right today.

X X X

Sirius and Remus stared at the frantic face of Minerva as it hung in the fireplace. Surely they couldn’t have heard that right? How…

“McGonagall….you can’t be serious, how?” Remus asked, dumbfounded. For once Sirius let the joke pass him by, there was a time and a place and even his oath as a marauder understood that. Minerva was red eyed and teary.

“We didn’t know anything was wrong until the first explosion! Albus was fighting a group of people near the gates, but..but before we could get there, there was…..it _looked_ like a killing curse, but it was massive! There was no way for him to dodge.”

“I..Shit, I can’t come help, Remus?” Sirius looked imploringly at the werewolf who nodded sharply.

“Back up Minerva, I’m coming through.” The relived face of the deputy, no Headmistress retreated from the flames. Remus grabbed a handful of floo powder off the mantle. Pausing he looked back at Sirius.

“Call the cub, I get the feeling he was probably involved.” Sirius nodded tiredly. No doubt he thought as Remus vanished into the flames with a shout of ‘Hogwarts! Headmasters office!’ Harry had sent him a letter once he had learned that Dumbledore had tried to drug Hermione, of course the girl was out of harm’s way at that point, but Harry had been worried that he might try it on them as well. Dumbledore wasn’t stupid, if anyone other than Hermione was going to know where his pup was it was indeed him.

With a shake of his head he turned away from the fireplace and headed up, not to his room, but the attic. After a brief meeting with buckbeak and the removal of the dark hexs on the hidey hole he’d been guarding Sirius had the journal he’d had Remus buy. Hermione had the other as they had decided it was too dangerous to have him in direct contact with Harry. That and the headmistress of Snow Point had been only sort of tolerant of the first journal that Harry had. Spelling it so that information couldn’t be stolen from it.

With a frown he flipped it open, it was glowing indicating a message. Harry knew he couldn’t check this thing very often, there were too many people who would tattle in an instant if they even suspected that he was talking to Harry. It was nerve racking to only get intermittent messages about what the pup was getting into. First the Horcrux, then the transformation. Remus had had to lock him in his room for two days before he calmed down and was finally rational enough to realize just how many reporters were at that hospital and the fact that he was, you know, _a wanted criminal._

Hermione had kept them updated on Harrys progress with his knew form, and _why_ did it have to be a snake? Totally unfair! Harry was a Gryffindor! He should have turned into a lion based creature! That and his animagus was a cat, so snakes? Really? Opening the journal up Sirius flipped to the most recent page and braced himself for the inevitable. The first line alone made him growl, the cat must have given Harry the book to write him.

_I would have called you earlier Siri but I wasn’t expecting things to get so out of hand. Dumbledore kidnapped Hermione out of White Gryphon, were all back at the city now. I lead a team of Silvers to Hogwarts to rescue her. After the whole ‘sorcerer adept’ thing they **really**_ _don’t want anyone blackmailing me. Dumbledore attacked us on the way out, there was one hell of a firefight and my magic backfired again, I’m not sure what I hit Dumbledore with, but I think I might have hurt him pretty badly, I was pissed, I don’t even really remember what happened, he tried to hit Hermione with a killing curse. I ended up overloading the portkey as well and we crashed into the jungle somewhere in the Congo. I’ve got a new pet now to, I’ll have to introduce you to him later, still need to name him though._

_Ps, the Silvers loved the map they want to talk to you and Remus about making one for the city. I’ll talk to them about you and see if they’ll give you a trial._

Sirius put the journal down with a heavy sigh. No doubt about it, it had been Harry who killed Dumbledore, he couldn’t blame his pup though, not if the old man had taken a shot at Hermione. Harry was almost neurotically obsessed with keeping the tiny family he’d created for himself in one piece. If it had been just about anyone other than Harry and Dumbledore, then answering a killing curse with deadly force of your own would have been almost applauded (under the table of course but still). But with Dumbledore dead, the ministry and magicals of Britten would be out for blood. If anyone had gotten a good look at that group then Harry was screwed. Hopefully the city that seemed to have all but adopted him would continue to guard his back. He wondered for a moment if her should tell Harry that he had killed Dumbledore before grimacing, if it wasn’t in the paper tomorrow then he’d kiss Snape. Sighing he pulled out the muggle pen clipped to the book and started writing.

X X X

Hermione was confused when upon waking the bed she rested on didn’t feel like one of Hogwarts extra squishy mattresses. It was comfortable, but distinctly different. Warily she kept her eyes closed and listened to her soundings. She wouldn’t put it passed Dumbledore to try and trick her into revealing where Harry was. There was the faint sound of people talking some distance away, and the soft sound of someone breathing nearby. Whoever it was seemed to be asleep. Cracking an eye open she glanced around warily. Eventually her gaze fell on the bed next to hers. For a long moment she stared at its occupant, then her eyebrow twitched, and she wondered just how annoyed the nurses would be if she chucked a pillow at him.

            Hermione had no trouble recognizing the humanoid form in the other bed as her brother. With those colors and in her room who else could it be? He must have done something stupid again to manage the shape shifting thing to change to the Coatls demi form. That and if the brace on his wing was any induction he’d managed to break it. Once more she contemplated hurling her pillow at him before deciding that she was too comfy to be willing to sacrifice her pillow in retribution.

A soft hiss growl brought her attention to the floor, her heart almost stopped. One of the Black Wrysa Harry had told her about was sitting on a cushion on the floor. It stared at her unblinkingly for a moment before snorting and laying its head back down on its paws. Hermione blinked blankly at it for a moment before her gaze slide back over to her brother. _Really?_ She thought to herself incredulously _REALLY??_

She let her head fall back to her pillow with a thump.

X X X

            Several hours later

“Are you awake yet?” Talyn groaned and burrowed deeper into his blankets at the insistent voice. “Harry!” He cracked an eye open and glared balefully at the offending person only to realize it was Hermione. He blinked, and almost lunged out of bed to hug her when his wing twinged sharply, reminding him of its half healed status. The doctors had decided that since his magic had reacted so unpredictably three times in the last day they didn’t want to risk healing potions or magic on him, so his wing was going to have to heal the old fashion way. Personally he thought they were just pissed he’d run off on a rescue mission without permission.

“How are you feeling?” He asked. Hermione quirked an eye brow up.

“I’m not the one with broken bones.” She answered, distinctly unimpressed. Talyn coughed, embarrassed. Hermione just sighed, and glanced down at the sound of a soft hiss. The Wrysa was watching the conversation with apparent interest. Talyn glanced down as well; the Wrysa cocked his head to the side. The odd hum of its thoughts grew stronger a series of distinct ideas breaking through. The Wrysa for all that it was apparently sentient, didn’t talk in words, but Talyn was used to such though and received its thoughts in something akin.

 _“?Pack?”_ it more or less asked. There were many layers to the thought. Talyn knew perfectly well it was asking about Hermione.

“ _Pack”_ he agreed, the Wrysa hissed almost thoughtfully before getting up from the cushion and walking over to Hermione. Hermione eyed it warily as it studied her closely. She yelped and jerked back when something yanked on her magic. The Wrysa’s eyes glowed briefly before licking her hand happily and jumping back to its cushion. It curled up tightly its whip like tail nearly circling it completely. Hermione glared, she would swear it was smirking at her. Talyn snickered.

“What, exactly, was _that?”_ she snapped at Talyn, he shrugged.

“Your pack, he wanted a taste of your magic so he would recognize you later.” Hermione glared a little sourly at the reptilian dog before sighing and looking back at Talyn.

“And how exactly did you pick him up anyways?”

“Well, I kinda overloaded a portkey and he was going to eat me when we crashed but I have too much magic now and…..we’re really not sure what happened. But he a part of my magic now.” Hermione gave him a thoroughly unimpressed look at this. Talyn had the grace to at least look embarrassed.

“So, whats his name?” she finally asked. Talyn blinked.

“Name?” he echoed. Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Yes, my idiot brother, name.” she looked down at the Wrysa thoughtfully while Talyn tried to think of something.

“Uh….shadow?” He hazarded, Hermione turned to look at him flatly. “What?”

“You’re not allowed to name things anymore.” She finally answered drily; she looked back at the Wrysa who watched then with a tilted head, its short ears perked up. “How about Argos?” she finally asked.

“He likes it.” Talyn said after a moment. Hermione nodded, a slight smile on her face.

“Well, nice to meet you then Argos, may you be half as loyal as your name sake.” She answered. The Wrysa yipped softly.

X X X

It was nearly a week later when things _finally_ went back to more or less normal. School had been out for three weeks, but would restart the next day. Talyn had been forced to drop several of his classes, although he would be doing theoretical independent study on them. Apparently Aldora didn’t want him ANYWHERE near her potions labs. He’d been a little annoyed at this until she’d told him, chapter and verse, exactly what his wild magic would do to some of the more common ingredients to be found in the labs. Not to mention the more interesting things in the nearby store room. Suffice it to say Talyn had agreed that one massive explosion a year was plenty.

Both blood magic and death magic would be going purely theoretical as well, the headmistress seem to think blood magic might help his solves the problems with his damaged magic, death magic wasn’t the sort of thing you fucked with when even the slightest variation could do exceedingly nasty things to you. Apparently that wasn’t quite so bad for him. The only practical thing they did in first year death magic was establishing and growing a connection to death, he already had that in spades so it was alright as long as he kept up with the theory.

Combat was one of the few classes that would remain unchanged, and he needed it badly as well. Relearning his balance and how to move without knocking everything over with his wings and tail was proving to be a challenge. Runes however were going to be his saving grace. Runes needed no real actual control to use; the skill was in making them, which was a physical thing. With his magic out of control the way it was he could still use runic spells with some predictability.

History was already a book class, so no difficulties there. At least one class would be normal. Talyn sighed and glanced up from his thoughts, having arrived at the heavy silver rune encrusted door leading to the headmistresses office. He pressed his hand to the quartz dome on the wall, it glowed briefly before the door clicked open. He stepped inside, Argos slipping past as he closed the door behind him.

“Ah there you are, Ashton.” Adriana commented from behind the truly impressive pile of paperwork on her desk. “And you new friend as well, thank you for bringing him.” a wave of her hand banished the papers to a side table as she stood up and walked around the desk. Argos hissed softly, his lips pulling back to show the barest edge of white fangs. Talyn sent a mental rebuke his way. The Wrysa huffed and settled for glaring. The headmistress smirked slightly, amused.

“I pretty sure he’s not really dangerous anymore.” Talyn said with a shrug. Adriana snorted at that.

“Oh I’m certain he is still _very_ dangerous, but I understand your meaning. As for why I wanted you to bring him..” She paused looking thoughtful before sighing. “You remember being attacked by Wrysa on the way to school?”

“Well, yeah?” he answered, not sure where this was going, the headmistress nodded.

“We determined shortly after the incident that you were not the only group attacked. The others weren’t so lucky. The problem was that the Wrysa didn’t kill them, _they captured them._ Wrysa simply don’t act like this. We haven’t been able to figure out what exactly is controlling these Wrysa yet. They should just eat any spell placed on them. This is why I wanted to take a look at your new pet.” Talyn was looking at her more than a little wide eyed, he frowned and looked down at Argos.

“You think he was one of them?”

“We’re fairly certain of it. I was hoping that there may be remnants of the spells on your Wrysa. May I check?” Talyn nodded and concentrated for a moment, explaining what the headmistress was doing to Argos. The Wrysa grumbled but didn’t bite or try and eat the magic when the headmistress began to scan him.

Adriana frowned faintly after several minutes before sighing and pulling away. “There was definitely something there, but no spells intact enough to identify.” She explained. Talyn nodded, annoyed he couldn’t help. The headmistress smiled. “It’s alright, Ashton. I wasn’t expecting much, but I had to check.” He sighed and nodded. “right, head back to your rooms, you need to get ready for classes, and I would ask that you not bring him to class with you.” She waved at the Wrysa. “Your fellow students will no doubt find him, unsettling.”

“Alright. “ He agreed.

“Good, now shoo.” Talyn snorted and left, Argos following at his side. Adriana waited till the door had closed before smirking and summoning a small quartz ball. Within moments she had copied the magical signature she’d found into the stone. Chuckling she tossed it into the air and caught it. “Gotcha, fucker.”

Within hours the signature had been distributed to a number of teams of Snow Point graduates, the search for the perpetrator begun. Had she known just what they were going to find, Adriana might have been a bit less happy.

Xxx

            Harry stared around himself in confusion. He had been asleep in his room, Argos asleep on the rug, now he was here. Wherever here was. A strange landscape stretched out around him, dusty barren ground with ragged white capped mountains looming in a wall several miles ahead, stretching out to the left and right in an endless ridge. Just in front of him a pass could be seen, looking as though someone had cleanly carved one of the mountain in half all the way to the ground. Distantly he could see the tops of impossibly tall trees just on the other side of the divide.

 

            "And, once again." He grumbled half heartedly, not really having the strength to muster anything but exasperation at the situation. A low chuckle sounded behind him. Talyn flinched hard and spun, a shield already half cast before he registered the threat. The magic fizzled as it tried to leave his body, the spell dying before it could even take form. Talyn starred at the figure in shock, amused emerald green eyes, almost a reflection of his own, stared back.

           

            "I would think that at this point you would stop being surprised." The man drawled, his white hair shifting slightly in an unfelt breeze. He looked to be around his late 20s and wore a black and dark grey robe with a silver cloak on his back. In fact, Talyn frowned, that was an invisibility cloak if he wasn't mistaken.

 

            "Who are you?" He asked flatly, knowing better then to insult or yell at someone when you had no idea who they were or how powerful. The man smiled.

 

            "You can't guess?" He asked amused, Talyn just sighed; he really didn't want to play this game right now. The man just chuckled again and shook his head. "I suppose I can accept that." he agreed making Talyn tense. He hadn't said anything, so how...? Quickly he checked the shields on his mind, they weren't very strong yet, but he should have sensed someone trying to get in!!!! But no, the shields were the same as ever. "Of course they are, my ability to read your mind has nothing to do those barriers you have on it. It would be quite impossible to block me out, but I don't think you'll mind too much once you understand who I am."

 

            "And that would be?" Talyn asked, trying not to growl.

 

            "Well.... In the simplest sense, I am Death." He answered with a faint smirk. Talyn blinked, then blinked again, he sighed tiredly.

 

            "Lovely, so what then? Did Argos deicide I looked tasty after all?" He asked sardonically, Death quirked an eye brow up at his lackluster response to the revelation.

 

            "Hardly, you’re not getting away from Destiny that easily, Harry." Talyn blinked unused to being called by his real name but glad all the same that he apparently wasn't dead, but that left the question of why he was apparently having a conversation with Death in that case. "You interest me, Harry." Was the amused response. "Your magic drew you here - to the borders between Life and Death, you should be more careful about the artifacts you keep near you with you magic unbalanced unusual things can happen. As it is you'll be going back, but I decided to come see what to make of you in person. You do after all have a rather interesting future in store for you if all goes according to plan.... More so if it doesn't I suppose." He added with a grin. Talyn grimaced, lovely.

 

            "Right." He finally said, Death smirked.

 

            "I find myself intrigued Harry Talyn James Potter-Ashton, perhaps you'll gain something from your brief visit here after all." He smiled a little darkly, Talyn tensed, wary. "I'll leave you with a bit of information. The invisibility cloak you received from your father is no normal cloak. It has a legend of its own tied to one of your distant ancestors. Perhaps you should do a little research and try your luck." With that the empty plain and the mountain range began to fade. Talyn sighed and gave Death a rather exasperated look.

 

            "It never does end, does it?" He asked tiredly. Death laughed.

 

            "Oh course it ends! For you however, just not today. You'll see me again Harry Potter, never doubt _that_." With that his sight faded to darkness and shortly thereafter his consciousness followed.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quetzal – ah, all sorts of interesting things. Gotta make up for lost time! For those you rolling their eyes at the Wrysa thing it’s really not all that ridicules. A well fed predator will ignore even easy prey, and a Wrysa is at its core inherently a dog, take away the need to eat magic and that’s more or less what you have. Just smarter and with scales.  
> As for Death, that had been in the works since the beginning. That scene has been written for ages, it was just waiting for its moment. It may seem odd that Harry is meeting so many powerful beings(I was discussing this with someone, no worries I’m taking it into consideration) , he has personally met one other as well, but ill say this. The number of Gods and such that he has met is very much in scale to the severity of the overall situation. This should slowly become more apparent in the next three or so chapters. most of these gods are just poking him with a stick, not gifting him with untold powers. ‘cept Death, Death kinda likes him. you’ll see, things will make much more sense next chapter, I think……  
> On that note, im fairly sure that book one is nearing its end. Book two is where the real action begins.


	20. One Night In Bangkok

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quetzal – I will admit I did just go ‘fuck it’ on the trial in here, I got half way though and I was just fucking done with it, so it’s partly kinda talyn musing on it after the fact rather then a play by play, sorry but it’s the reason this is two months late. Hopefully both the first and last part make up for it. (the editing is also gonna be kinda lacking, I DID run it through spell check though so theres that much)
> 
> Also on a cool note, I will be official trying to become a silver smith, my teacher says I’m kinda at the point where I know most everything I need to know and its just a matter of practice barring extra techniques, but I could go off and do halfway decently right now if I wanted, which is kinda awesome. Its just…silversmith is the sort of profession one expects in a fantasy novel, not as their actual carrier. I’m kinda fangirling about the whole thing at the moment.

XXX

Somewhere in northern Russia

            Ah, Snow – His worst enemy. And in such fantastic amounts too! Daniel liked to think he was a bit above average for a Snow Point graduate. His class had finished with 17 students, having started with 21. Slightly better than the average year. That and he had graduated near the top of his year. Not too bad.

            There was however one thing he had never gotten the hang of dealing with in all his years at Snow point, and that was the fucking cold. So why exactly he had ended up on a team that was freezing their asses off in the farthest reaches of Russia following the hint of an echo of a signal, he wasn’t quite sure.

            Personally he figured whoever had organized this shit didn’t like him.

At least they were flying instead of walking. That would have been many orders of magnitude worse. Currently they were skimming along some low ridges so buried in snow and ice as to almost disappear into the smooth plains of tree specked snow. There were far north of the old Ice Wall Mountains, in what had once been home to the northern tribes. Far to the south and west hidden by masses of ancient spellwork that nearly sealed them into other dimensions were the ancient lands of Valdamar and Karse. Hardorn didn’t really exist as itself anymore, neither did Rethanwell. The first was what had actually expanded into Russia after taking over the remnants of the fallen Empire over the centuries, the other had merged with Valdamar about a thousand years after second cataclysm. Russia’s magical society still heavily reflected the military nature of the Imperial mages, not that the normal side didn’t.

Daniel sighed and pulled his heavy jacket closer and prayed that the heating charms layered into it didn’t fail. They should have left checking this fucking area to the damn Russians! But noooo, this was a Snow point issue, they didn’t _need_ any help. Bitch. “I think I’ve got something!” Someone yelled from the front of the group.

“Hallelujah, “ He muttered darkly, turning his broom in the direction of the yelling vampire. The woman was hovering over an indentation in the ridge. Frowning down at it in concentration.

“It’s faint, but definitely coming from here” she said as the team pulled in from their search pattern. The team leader, a truly ancient Naga in human form (and wasn’t he probably having just as much fun in this weather), nodded and cast a spell at the ground. Eyes closed as he took in the information it sent back.

“There’s a cavern below us, nothing living, although there appears to be some kind of structure to it. Lets go. Karin, Ava, clear the snow, there” he pointed about ten feet to their left. “There’s an entrance, its iced in but it shouldn’t be too much trouble to melt through. “The two nodded, and set to work. They certainly looked more comfortable out here than him, Daniel though enviously. The two Fox-kin were partly transformed, keeping their human forms but having grown in a dense coat of white fur. Arctic foxes, they were probably from this area actually. Each team was supposed to have a local graduate with them. It was relatively quick work to clear the entrance of snow, and even less time to melt through the ice sealing it.

“Daniel! You’re up!” Daniel grimaced but dropped off his broom, shrinking it and putting it away. He knew he would be going first. His specialty was shields and wards. Both making and breaking them. He eyed the dark tunnel for a moment then created a small mage light, the baseball sized ball of light floated ahead of him casting a cold blue light over everything. He crept forward, keeping a careful eye on his surroundings and checking every nook and cranny for enemies. About thirty feet in the tunnel widened out. Daniel stopped dead and stared.

“Holy shit.” He hissed, and directed the mage light up to the ceiling. The light fell over a scene of carnage. Bones littered the floor, nearly covering it completely. Death magic had never been a skill of his, but now that he was practically on top of it even he could feel the poisonous magic and old pain embedded into the very stones. He sent the signal back up, and in moments the other five were crowded behind him.

“Shit.”

“Are these ours?” the Naga asked flatly. One of the foxes crouched down, her hand hovering over what looked to be the skull of a gryphon. Eyes closed tightly as she read the magics. After a moment she stood again, frowning.

“No, and these are old. Maybe two hundred years.” She scanned the room thoughtfully her eyes narrowing slightly as she took in the bone yard. “Look at the way their laying.” She said nodding to the far side of the cavern. They glanced down and followed her gesture.

“They were trying to get away from something. “ Daniel observed quietly. He followed the pattern and began picking his way across the room, trying not to step on the bones. Another tunnel led deeper into the mountain. He heard the soft scuffles and crunches as the others followed.

“So, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?” the vampire, Moria, snarked. They all looked at her, Moria looked away. “Sorry” she muttered. The Naga snorted.

“Ava, I want you to go back topside and send a message, I want the Headmistress to know what we’ve found. We’ll go on ahead and see if there’s more. “The fox nodded and headed back up. “Right then, Daniel?” He nodded and stepped forward, but paused.

“I think we should kill the lights and go with night vision spells instead.” The others considered, glancing down at the bones littering the floor.

“Maybe for the best.” The Naga agreed. The mage light flickered and faded away, plunging them into darkness. Daniel cast the spell on his eyes, the cavern fading back into sight - all deep blues and grays. With that they headed down into the darkness, the distant howl of the wind clawing at their backs.

Back up on the snow covered hillside Ava prepared to send her message, it was hundreds of miles to even reach one of the Mindspeech relays that peppered the world, this was going to take an annoying amount of power. She was so focused on her spell she never sensed the white serpentine creature sliding through the snow behind her until it was far too late. She heard the soft crunch of snow and spun a dagger in one hand, a glowing gauntlet on the other. She barely even had a chance to comprehend the glowing violet eyes of the beast before her mind was snared in its magics. She couldn’t even scream as the crystal fangs of the Cold drake cut through her with ease. The drake swallowed her in a single bite before creeping back to its hiding spot and resuming its guard. Leaving behind nothing but a fallen dagger and a small patch of bloodied snow that was quickly covered by the wind driven powder.

X X X

January 5 – White Gryphon

            The team of six Aurors was practically vibrating in glee. Frostlight looked up from the letter at them once more; he couldn’t decide whether or not the ministry was joking. They honestly thought he would just hand over one of his citizens? Let alone the exasperating little sorcerer? He looked down once more, reading the letter again, it was like they had handed this off to someone and said “write the most morally offensive letter you _possibly can_.” Even If he had been inclined to let the boy go, the phrasing ensured he would never do it. Referring to any sentient being as “beast” was a bad sign. He knew they were backwards, but _really?_

            _To the leader of the ‘City’ of White Gryphon._

_It has come to our attention that the ‘City’ of White Gryphon is currently harboring a dangerous beast responsible for the murder of one of our esteemed citizens. One, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. It is demanded by the Ministry of Magic, and the citizens of Brittan that you turn this creature over to the Department for the Control and Destruction of Dangerous Dark Creatures for immediate destruction._

_Failure to do so will be seen as an act of ill-will against the British Ministry of Magic, pending termination of all treaties and agreements. The beast is too turned over to the accompanying team of Aurors for removal._

_Delores Umbridge_

_Undersecretary for the Minister of Magic._

He turned his attention to the photo accompanying the letter as ‘proof’ of Talyns guilt in the murder. The shot was surprisingly well taken given whoever had done it had probably taken it through a window from a fair distance away. The moving photo showed Talyn picking himself up off the ground, an enraged snarl on his face, then glowing and sending a shockwave of death magic at Dumbledore before being tackled and vanishing in a portkey.

            Frostlight looked up silently once more, and then magically signaled the guards. Four Silvers appeared from under their cloaking spells in the corners of the room. Blades drawn and smiling dangerously. The two behind him seemed a bit more blood thirsty then the others. Had probably read the letter over his should again, brats. “I think it’s time for you to leave, boys.” He said with a deceptively mild voice. The Aurors blinked, shocked.

            “Are you going to turn the beast over?” The leader demanded. Frostlight snorted.

            “No, Talyn is a citizen of White Gryphon. We do not turn our citizens over to foreign powers for summery execution without as much as a trial. Now get the hell out of my city.” the Silvers edged forward making the Aurors bunch together warily.

            “Now see here! You have no right to deny our people justice for this murder!” the man blustered. Frostlight shrugged.

            “Now why would I do that? Justice will be had, I’m sure. Now the ICW will contact you with the time and place of the trial in good time, so _get the fuck out of my city.”_

            “The Minister will hear of this!” the wizard snapped. Frostlight snorted, rolling his eyes.

            “I’m sure.” He drawled and signaled the Silvers again. The Aurors were hauled, cursing, out of the office. A few minutes later, his second in command stepped in.

            “They’ve been sent back to the British ministry.” He pointed out calmly, a faint glint of amusement in his eyes. Frostlight nodded, not looking up from the photo he was once more examining.

            “Get me the legal department and the representative for the ICW, we have work to do.”

X X X

            January 10th

“ _Stupid hatchling_! _Trouble again_!?”

“I’m not the stupid one this time Hedwig, it’s them,” Talyn answered tiredly. Hedwig stared at him suspiciously for a long moment before clacking her beak.

 _“ALL stupid”_ She announced and began to preen her feathers as though that was the end of it. Talyn stared at her, a bit bemused.

“She’s just a fountain of wisdom, isn’t she?” he said to Vera. The gryphon snickered.

“Yesss, they ussaually are.” She agreed sagely. Talyn sighed and turned back to the headmistress with a wry smile. She had arrived while Vera was teaching him how to talk to Hedwig, _finally,_ after all the chaos of the last few weeks he had almost forgotten the owl could in fact, talk.

Unfortunately the headmistress brought nothing in the way of good news. He wasn’t sure what to think. He….he had killed Dumbledore? A few months ago the idea would have been horrifying. But now….. he was just relieved that it was _over._ Dumbledore could never threaten his family again. There was of course still Voldemort to contend with, but he’d been oddly quiet the last few months. Maybe getting the horcrux removed had done something to him. Or maybe he was scheming again.

This last month was just turning into an absolute shit storm. First the horcrux and the transformation, then the rescue and landing in the forest. _Meeting death._ Something he still refused to so much as breath a word of to **_anyone_**. That was the sort of attention that was best avoided. And the strange woman in the other dream, who after this run in with Death, he was nearly positive was a goddess or something. Now he had **two** research projects given to him by ‘higher beings’ finding the Heart of the Earth and figuring out what was so damn special about his cloak.

This was just a level of absurd that was so far above and beyond the usually bullshit of his life. And _now_ he was going to be on trial for the murder of Albus Dumbledore. He just really really wanted to go curl up in a corner and cry.

“Right so, when is this trial?” he asked running a hand through his hair, the feeling of feathers interspersed in it giving him pause as always. The Headmistress sighed looking just as annoyed as him.

“In three weeks time at the ICW headquarters in Egypt. White Gryphon is fielding a lawyer for you. You are considered a citizen of the city even if it’s not completely official at this point. They aren’t about to give you up to those bigots. They would do it just on principle, but with you being a Sorcerer Adept you get even more leeway due to the attempted blackmail. It should be easy to get it declared self defense.

“What the hell does my being an Adept have to do with it?” he asked, a little bit offended. The idea of getting some kind of special treatment just being he was an overpowered idiot didn’t sit well with him. Made him feel like he was pulling some kind of Malfoy level bullshit on the legal system. The headmistress gave him a sardonic look.

“I don’t think you get just how much everyone panicked when they learned that someone had almost managed to successfully blackmail you. Whether you’re trained yet or not, you are currently nearly the most powerful mortal on the planet. There are perhaps three others on the planet that equal or exceed a sorcerer adept for raw power, Talyn. One is a millennia’s old Fay, and the other is a demigod, the last is a time traveler that everyone is fairly certain is actually Merlin.” At the stunned look on Talyns face the headmistress sighed and added. “That’s only raw power Talyn. There are many people who could take you apart easily, you’re not really trained, and even when you gain control over your magic there will be those with hundreds if not thousands of years more experience then you. Don’t let it go to your head. You’re a long ways from being considered in the same league as the ancient Adepts.” Talyn hissed softly cursing under his breath in parseltongue. Fuck his life.

“Right, that….ok.” he muttered switching back to English and looking up at the headmistress. She smiled faintly.

“You’ll be fine. They’re going to ask you some questions, have you describe the things Dumbledore has done, and what happened that night. Things like that.”

“This is going to suck.” He finally answered with a heavy sigh. His wings drooped. The headmistress laughed.

“You think this is bad? You still have to go buy something appropriate to wear to the trial. The vests and pants you’ve been wearing since your transformation may be fine for classes but this is going to be a bit more formal. I’ll tell the city they need to send someone to help you out with that, it going to have to be custom whatever it ends up being.” She added, eyeing his wings and tail thoughtfully.

Talyn whimpered.

X X X

January 24

Talyn tried not to fidget, but even then couldn’t quiet control his tail which twitched slightly, the tip flicking and betraying his nervousness. His current getup didn’t help his nerves any, he had never worn anything quite like this. In place of his normal vest was a long sleeved top made of what seemed to be tiny scaled chainmail with slits in the back for his wings and in an iridescent greenish black with silver edges. He couldn’t believe how flexible it was, nearly flowing like silk. His pants were nice and simple in comparison, just dark green silk with a hole for his tail. The scaled shirt was cut in such a way as to fall just past his hips in the back and hid this.

His hair was what was making him _really_ worry he looked like an idiot. He’d been ambushed by a pair of 3 rd years that morning. A Talyadras mage and a Tervardi (a kind of humanoid bird person with startlingly red feathers) he’d gotten tied to a chair while they braided dozens of tiny strings of crystals and bells into his hair. Apparently they hadn’t wanted him to ‘embarrass the school’ with his wild mane of black hair and feathers. The headmistresses approval of the look after he went to her for help when no amount of magic would remove them had only calmed him a bit. Once he thought about it, he did remember how both of the Talyadras mages that had helped him in the hospital had done their hair similarly and that he looked positively tame compared to that one guy in white gryphon. Sadly he wasn’t likely to be able to shake his European ideas of how males were supposed to dress for a while yet, so he was going to have to suffer.

Egypt was proving to be fascinating at least. He had portkeyed over with a group of four Silvers earlier that day. The ICW headquarters was in what looked like an ancient temple or something, but so well preserved it might as well have been brand new. He wasn’t really sure, his knowledge of Egypt was limited to that one time Dudley had watched ‘the Mummy’. The massive white marble columns, gilded with gold and brilliant colors certainly made an impression though. The spells necessary to keep this place hidden must have been extensive. The reason it was the head quarters was that quite simply it was the oldest magical establishment in the world. Dating back thousands of years. Before even the cataclysm.

“Right kid, you ready?” Talyn looked up, started. Standing in front of him was an absolutely _massive_ gryphon. It had to be nearly half again bigger then Vera, with a much stockier build. Unlike Vera with her sleek feathers and short sharply curved beak. This gryphon looked almost fluffy with a massive beak like an eagle. “What, never met a gryphon before?” he asked. Talyn shook his head.

“Uh, no – I mean yes. I have. My roommate at Snow Point is a gryphon, although she doesn’t look quite like you.” The gryphon nodded.

“There are a few varieties of us.” He agreed. “Now I am to be your lawyer. My name is Kelvar. My assistant is Genki.” He nodded to the side. Talyn only now spotted the Hertasi that had been nearly hidden behind the gryphon’s massive bulk. The bipedal lizard was carrying a rather normal brief case and was wearing a tunic made of a material similar to his own shirt. The Hertasi nodded to him.

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Potter-Ashton, I hope the trial goes well.” Talyn nodded, a little surprised at the use of both of his last names.

“That whole secret identity thing went out the window really fast.” He finally said. Kelvar chuckled.

“They do tend to do that.” he agreed. “Now, I believe it is time to completely destroy these bigots. Shall we?” Talyn smiled back a little shakily and followed the Gryphon down the pillar lined hall. There was a fair amount of activity going on, and even at Snow Point he’d never seen so many different species.

“What else is going on today?” he asked, curious as to why there were so many people running around. Kelvar glanced back at him, one great golden eye considering him.

“Most are here for the trial.” He answered, Talyn froze.

“ _What?_ ” he demanded, more than a little bit of a hiss working itself into his words. The feathers of his wings fluffing up in reaction to his alarm. Kelvar sighed.

“Kid, those idiots are so sure of themselves that they demanded that the trial occur before a full council. They forget sometimes that _everyone hates them_. All they did was hurt their already slim chances of winning this. Will there be a lot of people there? Yes. But just remember, they are on your side. This is mostly a formality.” Talyn shuddered, little green sparks of magic flickering along his wings. This situation just kept getting worse and worse. He _hated_ attention, why the fuck did this have to turn into a fucking circus? “Do you need a calming potion?” Genki asked, eyeing the sparking wings with trepidation. Talyn caught the look and forced himself to calm down. He couldn’t afford to go blowing up the room right now. He wished he could have brought Hedwig or Argos. The headmistress had nixed that idea though, Hedwig was an arctic owl, she wouldn’t do well even short term in the desert. And Argos, well, that was pretty self explanatory.

Talyn sighed heavily and gave the two a weak smile. Kelvar nodded sharply and continued on.

XXX

Two hours later and everyone had filed into the massive room where the trial was to take place. The room was set up marginally like a modern court room, either that or this place had come up with the set up first. But in place of the normal benches was an amphitheater like series of raised bleachers. Bleachers which were now nearly packed. Apparently only the first 5 tiers were the actual representives, the other 10 were just spectators. There was easily a few hundred people there.

After seeing the size of the room Talyn had asked for that calming potion that Genki had previously offered, much to the unseen relief of a number of people who knew him. and weren’t some of them a surprise.

Hermione was sitting in a lower bench, below the representatives, with her was two people I didn’t recognize, Neville, and Remus, along with Luna and Vera. The gryphon was all but lounging at the end of the bench. Her short crest feather adorned with gold chains and crystals, with jeweled golden gauntlets on her forarms. She fit right in with the décor. Hermione for her part looked like she was trying to see everything at once. A magnified voice cut through the chatter suddenly, making more than one person jump.

“The Trial of Hadrian Talyn James Potter-Ashton versus the British Ministry of magic, Potter-Ashton is accued of the murder of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.” Everyone had shut up at this point – their attention pinned on the speaker. The contingent from the ministry looked shocked, muttering together now. Fudge looked positively gleeful. The man was dark skinned, and dressed in what Talyn could only say was something that he would expect an ancient Egyptian priest to be wearing. There seemed to be a great deal of gold involved in the ensemble, maybe…ok yeah he had no idea who this guy was supposed to be, maybe the judge? All he knew was that he looked very serious.

“How does Potter-Ashton plead?” the man asked, looking at him and Kelvar.

“Not guilty of Murder.” The Gryphon answered promptly. The man nodded and turned back to the group from the ministry. Talyn recognized Fudge, along with a oddly toad like uh..person. Dressed In the most horrific shade of pink, and two Aurors.

“State your case.” He said flatly, eyeing them with distaste. The toad like woman smiled viciously.

“hem hem. Deloris Umbridge representing the Ministy of Magic.” she said, her voice disturbingly sickly sweet. “Hadrian Potter is accused of murdering one of our esteemed citizens. Albus Dumbledore, in cold blood on the night of November 4th.” November 4th? Talyn blinked at that a bit surprised, when it had happened he would have bet his firebolt it was another Halloween fiasco as usual. Although, he supposed Dumbledore found out where Hermione was about then…so maybe it was.

“Defense?” the man asked. Kelvar clacked his beak, a smirk showing at the corners. Reading a gryphon’s expressions could be hard sometimes, but he’d been getting the hang of it.

“ On November 4th my client was accompanying a team of elite Silvers to Hogwarts school of witch craft and wizardry to rescue one Hermione Granger, a citizen of White Gryphon who had two days previously been kidnapped by Albus Dumbledore. This kidnapping occurred in broad daylight in front of many witnesses. My client was necessary for the rescue as the building is heavily warded and only those who had been there can find it. Miss Granger was retrieved without incident but my client and the team were confronted by Albus Dumbledore before they could exit the grounds. In the ensuing fight Mr. Dumbledore cast a killing curse at Miss Granger to which my clients unstable magic reacted badly to, resulting in an explosion of death magic and the death of Mr. Dumbledore.” Kelvar inclined his head to the man, who nodded and went to say something only to be interrupted by Umbridge.

“So you admit that Mr. Potter killed Albus Dumbledore?” she asked sweetly. The man glared at her as Kelvar gave her a lazy look.

“Self defence.” He answered, the woman wrinkled her nose like she had smelled something nasty as she eyed the gryphon.

“But none the less you admit he killed Dumbledore? I see no reason for this trial to continue when Mr. Potters guilt is so obvious!” she pointed out haughtily. Kelvar and the man exchanged looks.

“Obviously you have no idea how a trial is supposed to work.” Kelvar put in in a oddly wise tone. Umbridge scowled. The man heaved a sigh and glared at her.

“Wait your turn or I will be dismissing this trial on account of you inability to actually participate in a proper manner.” The glint in his eyes suggested that he really wanted her to keep interrupting. Umbridge scowled darkly, but backed off. Talyn smothered a snicker exchanging amused looks with Genki.

“Right then, let us continue.” The man drawled, smirking. Umbridge and fudge exchanged worried looks.

X X X

In the end Kelvar had utterly demolished the ministry. He’d gotten it so far as to accuse fudge as an accomplice to the whole incident, than asked him to prove otherwise under truth potion. Talyn had never seen someone back down so fast before. Umbridge looked like she was about to have a stroke. As the trial had gone on it had become abundantly clear that she considered anything that wasn’t human to be a mere beast. Kelvar had taken gleeful advantage of this and drove her halfway insane.

In the end the charged had been dropped, and the death of Albus Dumbledore declared to be self-defense. He was a little uncomfortable that Kelvar had used his status as a Sorcerer Adept to make the attempted blackmail even more serious.

The minister and his cronies had eventually been forcefully portkeyed back to Brittan in the end when they refused to accept the decision, which had been unanimous from the watching representatives. That at least had been amusing to watch, less amusing when Fudge had declared that he, and all his witnesses were permanently barred from entering the country, with automatic execution if they were caught.

Neville hadn’t reacted too badly to this, merely shrugging and saying they had been planning on leaving anyways. Luna had just smiled without saying a word. Remus had looked a little worried at first before Hermione had started whispering to him and he had relaxed a bit. No doubt he would be talking to someone about Sirius soon.

Talyn was making sure to stick close to Kelvar as the trial broke up. Far too many people wanted to talk to him and introduce themselves. He was familiar with the bullshit. Although he had to admit that these people were far more polite about it. A tap on his shoulder made him twitch, wings flattening against his back as he turned. Fully expecting another dignitary of some sort to be standing there. He blinked, taking in the form of Luna. Her silver eyes weren’t distant like normal. Instead he was pinned by a laser focus. He very quickly decided he liked it better the other way. Luna studied him silently for a long moment before holding out her hand. Talyn hesitated but reached out as well, taking the tiny box from her. She continued to watch him, not saying a word. Talyn hesitated for a moment before opening the box. Inside was a light chain necklace with a pendant of a small silver caps vial. A clear liquid filled the vial three fourths of the way. He stared at it, confused.

“Phoenix Tears.” Luna said after a moment, Talyn shot a look at her, startled. She smiled faintly. “You’ll need them in a few months. I will give you this advice to go along with it as well. What actually happens matters little in the face of what people think has happened.” She smiled again and held out a note. “Read that when the truly absurd happens.” She added. Talyn stared.

“My entire life is absurd Luna.” He finally said, _case in point,_ he thought. Luna smirked, the expression was strange on her face.

“If you are questioning if it is the right time, then it’s not, you’ll know when to open it.” with that she darted back into the rush of people leaving the court room. Talyn stared after her, uncertain. Looking down at the chain he took it out of the box and put it on, tucking the vial of Pheonix tears out of sight under his shirt, the note went into his pocket, and there it would stay. He wasn’t likely to have a chance to grab it out of his trunk when ‘the truly absurd happened’

X X X

Somewhere in northern Russia          

The tunnel seemed to grow even darker as they descended, it wasn’t a physical darkness though. Through the spells they wore they could see clear as day, if not in color. No, this was a different kind of darkness. The kind of dark that hung over you like a physical weight. The kind where every breath of wind was a monster breathing down your back, and every shifting shadow a demon.

            Even for a group of people as dangerous as them this darkness was beginning to ware. Most of those from snow point were disabused of any notion of superiority by their second year. No matter how strong you were there was always someone stronger, and they damn well knew it. Daniel resisted the urge to cast wards around himself, they couldn’t afford much beyond the ambient magic of the tunnel. The night vision spells were pushing it anyways. Shields and wards would all but paint a massive neon sign over their heads. He really didn’t want to personally meet whatever had killed all those people. Their magics suggested civilians, but there had been at least five gryphon’s among the dead. And even grounded, and in confines like that, five desperate gryphon’s could deal a massive amount of destruction before you even added magic into it. Anything to manage that had to be packing one hell of a punch, and really wasn’t something he wanted to meet down a dark tunnel at the ass end of nowhere.

A slight shift in the atmosphere was there only warning before the tunnel abruptly opened up into another cavern. They all froze and shifted to the walls at the sound of movement. Sharp hisses and screeches echoed from the space. There must have been a dampening spell on the entrance for them to not have heard anything until they were practically on top of it. The Naga signaled sharply, Moria nodded and all but dissolved into shadows which slithered forward creeping up to the edge of the tunnel to get a look. She remained there for a long moment before sliding back to them. The vampire reformed and gave the all a look, she was shaking slightly, her eyes a little too wide. She shakily signaled retreat.

They exchanged a look, before glancing back at the tunnel entrance.

The Naga nodded after a moment and signaled the retreat, he didn’t know what she had seen, but she could show them her memories later. Whatever it was must be bad, he’d never seen a vampire of her age act like she’d just seen hell itself – they tended to be made of sterner stuff then that.

They made it a few hundred few back up the tunnel when an evil sounding hiss issued from somewhere ahead of them. They all froze. Three sets of worried eyes looked to the Naga, he grimaced.

Knowing he would set off ever ward in the place he sent a magical scan out ahead of them; he paused and growled before straightening. “Two lesser Basilisk.” He said flatly, forgoing stealth. There was no point now. The vampire hissed out a curse.

“Still better chances then what’s back there.” She said nodding back the way they came. Daniel huffed. Fucking lovely.

“Maybe.” He agree darkly. “But do we want to get stuck in the middle when whatever back there comes after us? Better to be able to get our backs to a wall.”

“That’s probably the plan.” The Naga agreed sourly. “The basilisks cut off the retreat and they pin any intruders in the tunnel. We need to go back; this tunnel is a death trap.”

“I think this whole place is a death trap.” Daniel muttered tartly. Moria and the fox kin snorted in agreement. The Naga rolled his eyes.

“Right, kids. Make your peace with death, you’ll probably be meeting him soon.” He cut in dryly. “But let’s take as many others along for the ride that we can.” The slightly crazy grins he got in response made him huff out a dark chuckle. “Right. Moria you’ve gotten a look at the layout already – you’re behind me, break for the best cover you can find, I’ll bring up the rear. Daniel I want you to try and crack the wards on this place, if we can manage a portkey we might just get out of this alive.” Daniel perked up at that, he had pretty much resigned himself t dying dramatically in the middle of nowhere.

“Alright.” He agreed. The Naga shifted his form his serpentine body nearly two feet in diameter and what had to be 30 feet long. The human half was easily half again larger than the average person, well in proportion to his snake half. The bristling spines of his hair had stiffening into razor sharp poisoned spikes. The frill protecting his neck and back. With a flick he conjured a massive axe. Daniel moved to the middle of the group, if he going to take the wards down he would need to concentrate, the others would have to try and keep his ass in one piece till then.

“Moria, whats back there?”The Naga asked. The vampire chucked darkly.

“An army of monsters.” She answered with a smirk, the others gave her a look. “You think I’m joking?” she snapped. “At the least I saw Wrysa, Coldrakes, a few dozen of what looked like change beasts, and something that I will bet my life was a fucking Makaar.” They all stared at her.

“Cold drakes?” the fox echoed. Moria smiled grimly.

“Makaar?” Daniel said, remembering _that_ story from history class. Monsters created by the Dark Adept Ma’ar to fight Gryphons. They looked superficially like gryphon’s, if gryphons had be created to star in a horror movie anyways.

“Right, this’ll be fun. Hit the drakes first if their by the entrance and keep your eyes on the ground.” He ordered before turning and slithering rapidly down the tunnel.

They came upon the exit just as a pair or white Wrysa stepped in. White Wrysa while smaller than their black cousins by a significant degree, were highly poisonous in exchange. The Naga didn’t even slow down, or bother resorting to magic. Just twisting as he reached them and throwing a coil of his massive body forward. The Wrysa went flying like rag dolls. The massive vaguely spider like change beast behind it was knocked over. Change beasts were odd, they could look like anything. They were what happened when normal creatures were caught in powerful magic and warped into something _other._ Most creatures didn’t survive, but those that did were a different sort of monster entirely.

Once the Naga had cleared the entrance the rest of them came pilling out behind him, following Moria as she cut left, blasting back another Wrysa back at the same time. Within moments they had their backs to a cleft in the rock, the Naga parked in front and using his magic resistant scales to take some of the wild magic being thrown their way.

Daniel took an instant to survey their opponents and felt his heart sink into his boots. They were fucked, simple as that. There had to be a few hundred magical monstrosities in the cave. Some were recognizable monsters, like the Wrysa and the colddrakes, others were just a mishmash of nightmares. He turned his attention to the wards and felt himself grow even grimmer. There was no chance he could break these down enough for a portkey. Not a fucking chance.

But…they couldn’t afford for news of this place to not reach someone, _anyone,_ at this point he didn’t care about snowpoint security. He had to get a message out. With a single thought he transmitted this to the others via mind speech, no words really were needed. They didn’t falter but he sensed their agreement. With single minded determination he began picking apart a specific section of wards. They were strong, but not as strong as the ones blocking every form of magical transport. Next to him the ground was torn apart as Moria ripped a change beast resembling the unholy child of a scorpion and bat apart. He was halfway done when the fox went down under the talons of a Makaar. The creature’s jagged beak ripping her head clean off. The Naga twisted a spell blasting from his hand and hurling it into the cave wall, shattering every bone in its body. Daniel tried to work faster but the wards were trying to heal themselves even as he tore them apart. The only reason he was getting anywhere with it was because he knew better then to just try and blast through and picked apart the threads connecting the layers before attacking each one separately.

Another dozen layers broke apart as Moria finally went down in spray of blood. Nearly thirty Wrysa tearing her apart. Daniel split his attention casting a shield between himself and the Wrysa even as the Naga backed up to try and defend all three sides. Luckily these were all the white variety so shields worked.

“Daniel.” The Naga hissed warningly as a massive colddrake shoved other monsters aside to get closer to them, Daniel ignored him tearing through three more layers. The last layer collapsed just as the Naga was torn off the ground by the colddrake. The old Naga didn’t go that easily thought, putting a long dagger through the drakes eye and straight into its brain even as its fangs punched through him. They both hit the ground with a heavy thud, dead. Daniels shield shuddered as another change beast hit it, a second right behind it. Without looking up he focused not on his magic, but on his life, pulling hard. The shield wavered and died as everything he had was directed into a single spell. The amplified mindspeech blasted outward like a shock wave. Carrying with it not words, but images. The memory other everything since they had landed. The power of his life fueling his mind magic far beyond what he was naturally capable of. He was dead before he even hit the ground.

People with mindspeech as far away as china were seized by a sudden horrible vision of the battle in the cavern - watching as one by one as the fighters fell and Daniels desperate gamble to get a message out.

Pandemonium erupted across the continent.

X X X

Back in the cavern there was only silence and the occasional soft hiss. The corpses lay where they had fallen, having been abandoned the moment the last one fell. A feminine form walked across the cave. Every monster and beast hastily getting out of her way. The woman looked almost human, but warped ever so slightly, inhuman traits putting her apart. But there was no doubt that she was far more than merely another beast here.

She paused at the pile of bodies, studying them intently before heaving a sigh and taking in the shattered wards. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. “And here I was hoping to have a bit more time to deal with the situation.” She sighed, thoughts turning to the young Sorcerer Adept who had appeared only weeks before. She hated it when she had to rush.

X X X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quetzal – my thoughts when I finished this chapter ‘fuck, finally’ on another note a number of pictures I hunted down from Larry Dixons original work for the valdamar series are now up on snowpoints tumblr. This includes pics of both kinds of gryphon, a makaar, and a Wrysa. Just search snow point on tumblr its one of the first ones that comes up.
> 
> Now following this in a few hours, sometime tomorrow morning with be a short interlude, it is already written so don’t worry about delays. If you’re curious about our new friend we just met stay tuned, it’s time for a bit of backstory.


	21. Interlude – Legends Remembered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Legends Remembered - epic score

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quetzal - and here is that interlude i promised. its short, but its what it needed to be and no more.

X X X

X X X

Several thousand years ago

Darkness curled out around a woman's form as she stalked through pristine white marble halls.

Drops of blood misted the ground behind her, while glowing violet eyes with slit pupils caught the flickers of light from the torches that lined the halls. On her head rested a crown in the shape of a lionesses - fangs framing her face, her hands tipped in long razor sharp claws stained deep red. A terrified priestess walked ahead of her, all but radiating utter terror as she led her towards the Sanctuary.

They hadn't wanted to let her in, with good reason, but after she had torn apart two priestesses who had tried to bar her way they had wisely decided to give her what she wanted. And really - it wasn't much, she just wished to speak to the Oracle. She would even keep her word about letting them live if she learned what she wanted to.

The light brightened as they finally arrived at the central room of the temple, she smirked at the shivering priestess and walked passed her towards the form sitting on a collection of pillows in the center of the room. The woman looked up at her, a distant look in her silver eyes.

"I know why you are here." she spoke coolly when the visitor opened her mouth to speak. Violet eyes narrowed in annoyance but she held back her retaliation for the disrespect. A Seer like this had to be given a little leeway, they didn't see danger or power as others did, and she needed her "You wish to know if your plan to rule this world will succeed, and what if anything will stand in your way."

"Correct, perhaps the tales about you are indeed true, Oracle." the Oracle smiled faintly.

"Indeed, I know of you. I know the horrors you have committed, and those you have yet to even contemplate. Though your evil is great now it will only grow should you live."

"Is that your prophecy for me then? That my evil will grow as long as I live? That is not quite what I came here to learn, oracle."

"That?" the Oracle chuckled. "Hardly demon, that is something even those with mortal eyes can see, you have yet to hear my Prophecy." the Oracle laughed again at the flash of rage that crossed the monster before hers eye's.

"Listen well demon for I foretell what might be your end." she whispered her voice taking on a strange ethereal quality. "As the final hour of your victory draws near. All who bar the way shall fall but one, he shall appear from the frozen wastes. Favored by Death and bound by twin Destinies. He will wield Life itself against you. And though newly awakened to his true power, He may yet be your end should he not fall to his own past." The Oracle blinked, coming out of her trance, and smirked. "That beast, is all I have to say to _you_. There is of course more, but then – there always is. That however, is not for your ears." The creature that called itself Lamashtu snarled in rage.

The Oracle only laughed.

Miles away a single priestess road on horseback into the dark hills, the sun setting on her left as she road north along the coast. She flinched as the distant boom of an explosion reached her ears. She didn't dare look back at the glowing mountain top. Only clutched her burden closer and urged the horse to move faster along the shadowed trail. The horse was only too eager to do so, it could sense the evil magics at work behind it and wanted no part of them.

The Oracle had known what was coming for weeks and had prepared them for this. Others had scattered to the winds, carrying prophecies to distant lands but she carried the most important of them all. The same prophecy that would be delivered to the creature, but more even than that. She looked down at the baby held safely against her, the little girl stared back with sad silver eyes. The bloodline would not end here in Greece, although many would think the line of true seers ended this night, she would carry it to distant lands as ordered.

X X X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quetzal - I'm curious to hear your interpretations of the prophecy.


	22. War of change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Que - *climbs out of deep cave in Minecraft* soo…….. I uh, got lost on the road of life? I knew if I ever went and played minecraft bad things were going to happen! Go figure I was right!
> 
> This chapter is brought to you by Xzeria, who pm’d me today about a piece of fanart and I sqwee’d at the idea of getting more fanart and chewed out the last 2000 words of this in about an hour and a half. Editing might be a bit shaky. Words not capitalizing things half the time for some reason among other things. Think I got all of those but you never know.
> 
> War of change - thousand foot krutch

 

January 27th

Vera was preening. She had gotten more than a few barbs in on Umbridge and had made the woman turn an admittedly fascinating shade of purple that surpassed even Vernon’s legendary shade of puce. Talyn shuffled his wings a little trying to get a bit more comfortable. He was stretched out on a massive cushion in front of the fireplace. With his sudden acquisition of wings and a tail the two of them had given up completely on ‘normal’ furniture. Vera had instead brought in a truly obscene number of gigantic pillows, fluffy pillows. All of which were charmed to withstand claws with relative durability.

Aside from enjoying his fantastically squishy cushion, Talyn was perusing a copy of White Gryphons newspaper with a faint, happy smile. The day after a major circus in his life and _he wasn’t on the fucking front page._ Miracles do happen. There was a page long summery of the trial (with liberal mocking of the ministry) on page four, but what really mattered was that it wasn’t on the front.

What _was_ on the front was nothing to laugh about however. He had watched the memory that had been blasted across half the planet second hand. It was nothing like watching one in a pensive. You saw everything from the point of view of the memories maker and felt everything they did. It had been horrifying. He completely understood why the entire planet was completely losing their shit over the contents. Experts had made of list of the creatures seen in the message. There were nearly forty kinds altogether. Species long thought extinct, and others that would sooner rip each other apart then even bother with easy prey in front of them. Vera, along with most other gryphons, had had a complete conniption fit over the revelation that there had been Makaar present. The twisted creatures superficially resembled a Gryphon and had been created for the sole purpose of killing gryphons. It had been thought that the last of them had been seen at the end of the mage wars. Apparently not.

Vera had seriously considered dropping out of Snow point until the situation was resolved. The Silvers had set up an emergency training program with everything they could dig out of the archives on Makaar. Ancient reports of battle tactics, some of them dictated by the legendary Black Gryphon himself were being poured over for every bit of intel.

She had decided to stay on the advisement of the Silvers, she would be of more use to the city trained in magic then in basic flight tactics. She was after all at least a Master class mage in the making.

A soft yip drew his attention to the doorway to his bedroom. Argos was peering around the corner at him. Vera made a soft evil sounding hiss in response. Talyn sighed at this, Vera absolutely _hated_ the Wrysa. Argos was smart enough to understand this, and at the same time take fiendish delight in driving her up the wall.

The Wrysa padded over to Talyn pausing to stretch languidly before flopping down on a cushion. Vera glared malevolently at him, her crest feathers fully raised making her look like she had a mohawk. Talyn rolled his eyes before looking back to the newspaper. Todays article had a bit more information on the battle. The site had been reached with a massive joint force of both snow point mages and the magical section of the Russian army. The place had been abandoned. Even the corpses of the creatures they knew had died were gone.

The only thing there were the mangled corpses of the team.

X X X

Feb. 25th

Magic cracked around the chamber. Visible arcs of violet lighting crawling across the marble walls. The three concentric circles of blood in the center of the room glowed dully, the light fading first from the runes interspersed between them, then from the rings themselves. In the center was a small ring of carved quartz crystal, veins of gold running through it, it was maybe an inch thick and almost a foot across. Held within the clear crystal were shimmering liquid symbols which seemed to curling in on themselves. Changing and shifting as you watched. Talyn knelt outside the three rings hands resting on the edge of the outer ring. He waited for the last of the crackling magic to fade before removing his hands. He stretched his wings giving them a sharp flap to loosen the tight muscles. Leaning forward he dragged the tip of a silver knife through the ring. Breaking it. Standing he stepped inside leaning down to break the second and then the third rings. He eyed the quartz ring warily before picking it up to carry it from the room. Even just touching it he could feel his magic shift in response to the spells he had woven into the object.

Careful not to drop what amounted to two months of research and work he tugged the heavy wooden door open and stepped into the small antechamber that led to the main hall. Sierra was waiting for him, all but snatching the ring from him. Pulling out a jeweler’s loupe she minutely examined the runes of blood now sealed into the crystal. It was nearly twenty minutes before she backed off - studying it thoughtfully before nodding and handing it back.

“It’s not perfect, but it’ll work for you. It should allow you to cast normal magic, anything up to mid master class should be fine. If you push harder you’ll overload it however, so be careful. The shut off you worked in looks intact however so you probably won’t ruin it if you do have an outburst.” Talyn nodded, relived. The ritual almost hadn’t worked as two of his runes had been off a tiny bit. Not enough for the blood magic to fail, but it lacked power it would have otherwise had.

Taking the ring back from Sierra he lifted it up and pressed the edge against his throat. Just as it was meant to it slipped through his neck like it wasn’t even there settling easily around his neck. It shimmered shrinking a little bit fit snuggly against his skin. It was slightly uncomfortable, but part of the spell work gave it a certain amount of flexibility to it so it wasn’t going to choke him.

Taking a deep breath he pulled his wand out of his bag. Carefully he cast a simple lumos spell. His wand lit up with a gentle white glow. Exactly the amount he wanted. His grin nearly split his face. The last time he’d tried this spell he’d nearly blinded himself and had been lucky it had been pointed at the wall. The light had been so intense that it had _bleached stone_.

“Try something a bit stronger why don’t you?” Sierra suggested. Talyn nodded and focused his mind. A moment later prongs pranced around the room. “A corporeal patronus? I should have expected something like _that.”_ Talyn just grinned unrepentantly up at her. “Right. Clean up the room then you’re free to go. Test out your limits as you can. Find out where the line is.” With that she left headed down the hall.

Ten minutes later she arrived at the Headmistresses office. Knocking she entered without waiting for a response. Adriana glared up at her from behind truly astounding piles of paper work. Reports from teams all over the world were tacked up on the walls. Articles from various publications. It looked like a conspiracy theorists dream. There was even a tack board with various bits of info connected by bits of string. Sierra gave Adriana a long dry look. The headmistress scowled. “I’d like to see you find a better way to get this shit organized.” She growled. Sierra held up here hands in surrender.

“I didn’t say _anything.”_ She defended. Adriana glowered.

“So, why are you bothering me then?” she demanded. The vampire shrugged.

“Ashton went and completed that limiter he’s been working on. Works well, he cast a corporeal patrounus without any visible sign of strain on it.” Adriana’s eye brows went up at that.

“Really? Not bad. I wasn’t expecting anything better then journeyman class spells with it.”

“I told you he’s good.”

“You did.” Adriana agreed readily enough looking back down at the report she was reading with a heavy sigh. “He’s doing well.” Sierra nodded.

“Kids a natural at Bloodmagic. And the healing training he’s been doing is going damn good to. Did you figure out what that fourth gift of his is yet?” Adriana blinked and nodded.

“We did finally get it pinned down. The sheer power of the gift was throwing off the readings. Making it look like something else.”

“And?”

“It’s Earthsense of all things. I was expecting Fire-starting, or fetching, something with a bit more oomph. We didn’t even know it _could_ be as powerful as the version he has. Earthsence has always been the sort of thing where its ether on or off. The power of the gift could very but it never seemed to effect the use. I’m not willing to hold by that assumption in Talyns case however “

“Hu, so he’s officially a tree hugger then?” the look Adriana gave the vampire had Sierra snickering. “Alright! Alight! So kids a proper Healer Mage. What did he think?”

“He was actually quite happy about it. It was apparently nice to know his abilities are leaning towards healing and other positives instead of just being good at blowing things up.”

“Are you sure he’s really a teenage male? _Not_ liking explosions? What’s the world coming too?”

“Sierra.” Adriana drawled. The vampire huffed a laugh.

“Yeah yeah, alright. So our little sorcerer adept is starting to find his feet. What else is new? Anything interesting come up with that cavern?” Adriana went still, eyeing her. Sierra’s expression went serious.

“That bad?” the Headmistress just nodded.

“Once we got down there we were able to find some additional tunnels leading away from the cavern. They had all been caved in recently. Initial estimates put the tunnels at being hundreds of miles long. We have no idea where they go and we’ll never be able to dig them out.”

“So…..all the monsters have scuttled back under the bed.”

“It’s worse.” Adriana added flatly. Sierra blinked at her incredulously.

“Worse?” she demanded. Adriana smiled sardonically.

“Those tunnels weren’t natural. They were carved out with magic.” Sierra started at her blankly.

“And….hundreds of miles?” Adriana just nodded. “But…the amount of magic that would take! That’s…..”

“Insane? Yes it is. The last madman to try something on that scale was the Dark adept Leareth.”

“Who carved out the Ice Wall Mountains pass but even _that_ was only about 60 miles! How the fuck!” Adriana shrugged.

“That’s what has everyone panicking at the moment. What few know is that Leareth is one of Ma’ar less well known incarnations. Meaning it took a sorcerer adept to carve the pass. And whoever did those tunnels has to be even stronger, even if they were done over _decades_. Add in all the monsters and change beasts and what do you get?” Sierra starred at her, her jaw all but unhinged as the full implications really penetrated her mind.

“We are so fucked?” she finally suggested.

X X X

Feb. 29th Somewhere in Scotland

Torches cast a flickering light over the dark stone hall. Resting at the end of the room was a throne built of silver and black wood – snakes carved into every inch of it. Each one with gleaming emeralds for eyes. In the throne sat Voldemort himself, the Dark load was contemplating the massive bloodstains soaked into the stone before his throne.

The scene might have been impressive if it hadn’t been so hilariously cliché. Not that even those of his followers who freely acknowledged that their lord was a drama queen would ever even dare to think as such anywhere near the dark lord.

Kneeling near the doors at the far end of the hall where three death eaters. All waiting nervously for their lord’s decision on the information they had brought. “Malfoy.” Voldemort’s voice was contemplative as he spoke. The center death eater straightened slightly.

“My lord?” Lucius questioned promptly. Voldemort considered him for a moment, amused.

“Gather my forces, I will be taking that which rightfully belongs to me from the ministry this night.” Lucius nodded promptly.

“Do we indent to hold the ministry, or only retrieve the prophecy?” he asked. Voldemort took a moment to seriously consider the question. It wouldn’t be hard to clear the entire ministry, but no. the ministry itself could wait. Even with Dumbledore dead it was best to wait a while longer to truly take the ministry. The contents of the prophecy could greatly change his immediate plans after all.

“No, we will retrieve the prophecy and retreat for now.” Lucius nodded shortly and stood sweeping out of the room, his two cohorts following quickly.

X X X

Snape all but dragged himself into Hogwarts the next morning. Utter exhaustion clawing at his mind as the sun just began to crest the horizon he had been called in with no warning hours ago and almost immediately sent out to attack the ministry with the others. To his shock Voldemort had actually accompanied them, he _had_ been trying to lay low until his forces had been rebuilt. No longer it would seem.

The ministry had fallen in minutes. This wasn’t all that surprising. They’d gone in just as the graveyard shift had been changing. No attempt had been made to gain control of the various floors though. Both himself and Lucius had accompanied the dark lord into the elevator and down to the department of mysteries while the others wrecked bloody chaos upstairs.

The two unspeakables that had attempted to stop them had died in moments. One nearly putting up a decent fight using a shimmering lilac barrier which for one precious instant looked like it might actually hold back the killing curse. Even the dark lord had given that one a moment of thought before expressing his regret that the man had cast it silently.

Personally Severus figured that was _why_ he’d cast it silently, even if it did weaken the spell, he didn’t want Voldemort to know it. there had been no other resistance in reaching the prophecy. Voldemort had retrieved it with relish, breaking it then and there to hear the full prophecy. The words still echoed in his mind. The words that had dammed Lily.

_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.._

He grimaced, cursing as he staggered into the entrance hall and shakily called for a house elf.

“What can Blinkys be doing for teacher?” the elf asked eyeing him critically.

“Please tell Minerva to meet me in my office and to bring the mutt with her.” he ordered stiffly while making a bee line for the stairs to the dungeons. The elf nodded and vanished with a pop. Severus had just settled into his armchair with a rather large glass of brandy when the sharp knock came on the door. He flicked a wandless unlocking spell at it. Minerva stepped inside a ragged black dog close on her heels as she turned and closed the door with a heavy thud.

“Bad new then, Severus?” She asked with concern. He sighed heavily and knocked back half the glass of brandy. Watching in faint annoyance as Back transformed and flopped down on his couch like he owned it.

“Indeed. Voldemort attacked the ministry last night, he was successful in retrieving the prophecy.” Sirius cursed and straitened from his mocking lounge while Minerva’s lips thinned to a white line.

“And we no longer know it with Albus’s death.” She pointed out grimly as she sank down onto the other end of the couch. “I miss him dearly but he was such a fool sometimes. I think Mr. Potter may have had a few points at that trial.” Sirius snorted.

“More than a few I think Minerva.” He countered. She shot him a tired look as he shrugged apologetically. Severus watched them for a moment with a raised eye brow before snorting and taking another drink, he waited for a moment relishing the taste of the alcohol as it burned its way down his throat while the other to turned to him with matching frowns.

“You know something Snape?” Sirius asked tartly. Severus shot him a look before setting his glass down on the side table.

“The dark lord had myself and Lucius accompany him to the department of mysteries. I was there when he broke it to hear the contents.” Sirius and Minerva’s eyes lit up in relief.

“So you know it then.” She said with a sigh. Snape nodded.

“Indeed, but you must remember that if anyone asks Dumbledore told you the prophecy before his death. I was the only other one present other than Lucius and the dark lord. If the prophecy can out right now, he will have a very short list of suspects.” Sirius was studying him with an uncharacteristically serious look on his face. He nodded, Snape eyed with silently for a moment.

“I’m sure this knowledge will find its way to Potter one way or another?” He asked. Sirius just gave him a raised eye brow completely innocent. Snape grudgingly admitted that Black was a halfway decent liar when he felt like it.

“So then,” Minerva asked. “what is the prophecy then?” Snape took a breath before repeating it for them.”

“ _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.._ _”_ he trailed off taking in their grim expressions.

“There is, quite a few ways to interpret that.” Sirius finally said. Snape looked at him, amused.

“And here I thought you would go with the obvious answer.” He taunted. Sirius snorted at him.

“I am a Black you know, mother made sure I understood how these sorts of things work, even if I don’t like it. Prophesies are NEVER straight forward.” He countered. Snape just hm’d thoughtfully as he turned the prophecy over in his mind. Black was right unfortunately the obvious was rarely correct.

X X X

“Fuckity, fuck.” Talyn muttered caustically. “God damn fucking…..!!!!” He trailed off into an evil sounding hiss. Kira and Soren looked at him over the breakfast table with some concern. Talyn was currently looking at his journal, or more specifically the message Hermione had relayed from Sirius.

FUCKING prophecies. he _hated_ prophecies. The only exception to this was Lunas weird brand of advice, which had a nasty habit of being extremely accurate. But nothing that came from [Trelawny](https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&biw=1678&bih=781&q=Trelawny&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdjZGj5P_JAhWDQyYKHWb2CQIQBQgZKAA) was good. NOTHING.

He would not be forgetting the fiasco that was third year anytime soon, that prophecy had come true as well.

“Soo….bad news?” Soren ventured. Talyn was silent for a moment before closing the book closed with a decisive snap and looking up to smile brightly at the Draken.

“Of course not everything is lovely, why would you _ever_ think something was wrong?” He asked with false brightness. They both blinked and him before exchanging a look.

“Was anyone kidnapped this time?” Kira asked.

“No.” he answered before going back to his food. Ever since his transformation he had noticed a definite leaning towards meat. Breads he was still ok about but vegi’s tasted worse than usual.

“Do you want to share?” Soren asked. Talyn shook his head wordlessly staring down unseeingly at his steak and eggs for a long moment before descending into a vicious tirade once more. Only this time in parsletongue. As much as he liked the two of them he wasn’t close enough to share something like this with them. He would talk to Vera about it however. Maybe she would have some ideas.

He was fairly certain he knew some of what the prophecy was referring to. The horcruxes likely played a large part. No doubt his rise to Sorcerer adept was well. But mark his as his equal? One thing he knew for sure was that Voldemort was _not_ a sorcerer adept. A normal Adept perhaps but not a sorcerer. So then how could it mean equals then? Talyn blinked a thought occurring to him. Maybe it meant the horicrux? The horicrux had made them equals by dragging his power down to Voldemort’s level after all. He blinked and tried to stifle a snicker. Oh that was good. The snicker became a full blown laugh as he tried to imagine the look on Voldemort’s face if he ever pointed out that interpretation.

Soren and Kira watched with growing concern as Talyn went from swearing and staring sullenly at his breakfast to laughing hysterically. They exchanged another look.

“Um…should we get the medic?” Soren asked worriedly. Kira eyed Talyn for a long moment before shrugging.

“Hell if I know,”

X X X

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Que – it was going to be a little longer but the chapter just completely stuck the landing there. I will try and not become entrapped in minecraft again and if I do you can come murder me until a rage quite. I go by Cosmicfalcon and am currently hanging around the Gladius server.


	23. you're gonna go far kid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Que – WHAT THE HELL IT THE END OF THE WORLD IT'S ONLY BEEN TWO DAYS AND IM UPDATING!?
> 
> What can I say reviews are inspiring! This chapter feels a little weird to me, im not sure why the first part felt cracky for…reasons that will be apparent, and after taking a glance at a map I have come to the annoyed conclusion that the Antarctic volcano which plays a large part in this story is on the wrong side of the continent. So for the sake of the story assume its where I put it. in light of this note that Mount Eberus is a real volcano with an active lava lake.
> 
> X X X

 

Green and purple scales shown in the wane sunlight that filtered through the Antarctic skies. Green feathers fanned wide to catch every hint of an updraft in the freezing air as their owner glided higher. Talyn coasted over the ocean in silent contemplation. After the initial hilarity of learning the prophecy he had been forced to sit down and think about it. (or more accurately Vera had entered the great hall, seen him laughing hysterically and conjured water over his head before demanding to know what was so damn funny.)

In all likely hood the prophecy meant that he needed to kill Voldemort or otherwise contribute to his demise in some way. That was of course if 'the other' actually referred to _him_ , the phrasing was ambiguous. Vera had been happy to point out that it could refer to a third person who would be doing the killing. Whether of him or of Voldemort. Of course that made the rest of the prophecy head scratchingly confusing. If 'either must die at the hand of the other." Referred to a third person then just do you interpret 'for neither can live while the other survives."? Personally he was going to throw that idea out. Vera had her moments but he didn't think this was one of them.

Hissing he stretched his long serpentine body out fanning his tail feathers wide to balance and flapping hard a few times to regain altitude. The iron dark ocean moved away with every beat. Talyn watched the white foam on the crest of every wave break and merge with others. Angling his wings, he caught a sharp gust and shot upwards into a cloudbank.

The bolt of purple magic that would have skewered him shot through the place he'd been and left the water sizzling where it had hit. Talyn let his eyes unfocus in the particular way Kira had been showing him and looked back down. Six faintly glowing shapes silhouetted themselves nicely on the cold ocean. As Kira had explained it this wasn't quite the normal snake thermal vision, they were after all, more than mere snakes. He was seeing both heat and magic. And the glow wrapped around his enemies looked almost putrid.

He turned circling to stay in the cloud and tried to mindcall back to Snowpoint, he felt his magic deflect off a barrier and cursed. Four of his opponents shot up towards him at his use of magic. Homing in.

Talyn snapped his wings closed and exhaled sharply to flatten his belly scales. This was a trick he had picked up by accident, it didn't really slow his decent any but it let him turn nearly all of that speed into forward motion instead of just dropping, just like the flying snakes of south America (1). He whipped his body hard like he was swimming and slithered through the attacker's formation. Snapping his wings open the moment he was below them and arrowing straight for one of the two that had remained below. The creature looked at first like a gryphon but no, he recognized it now. That was a Makkaar. _Ah crap._ He thought in disgust.

_Here we go again._

Lunging downward he slammed into the Makkaar, it shrieked in shock as he coiled around it. Sinking his fangs sharply into its left wing joint before releasing it and flapping hard to recover. The Makkaar managed to right itself and get its wings under it before it hit the water, but already its movements were becoming sluggish as the venom took effect.

His magic warned him just in time to roll hard. Leaving razor sharp talons to snap through the outer most primaries on his right wing. ripping one out as it tried to get a grip on him. He spun and focused hard. He had found that while lacking hands the easiest point to focus magic to either from his mouth or his forehead. He let his jaws gape open like a dragon about to breath fire and all but spat a blasting hex at the offending Makkaar. A wing snapped with a shower of blood and the second Makkaar fell screaming.

The entire exchange had taken only a few seconds. But those seconds were now over and the group above him was dropping with talons outstretched.

There was only one Makkaar in this group he noted as he flapped hard to get out from under them before they could complete the dive. The rest were a mismatched bunch of… _things._

One looked like nothing so much as a gigantic mutant _parrot_. Admittedly it was a parrot the size of a fighter jet. Its feathers looked oily and unclean its beak oddly warped. Like it had flowed like molten wax only to be blown back along the beak. Leaving an odd drip like pattern behind as well as a wickedly sharp point.

The other two were a pair. One an ugly shade of yellow with what looked like tentacles sprouting from its back and five legs. Other than that it sort of looked like a Draken. The other was similar only it looked like someone had thrown a bird and a Draken into a blender and stopped before they had pureed properly. One wings was feathered, the other a dragon wing. Feathers spouted sporadically along its scaled body and its head had a beak with the dragons lower jaw.

Talyn took one long look at the group and NOPED the hell out of there. Pouring on the speed he fled south. His course took him farther from the school but the bubble they had set up probably stretched farther in that direction. No doubt assuming he'd tried to run towards backup. A glance back told him they were following. The parrot outpacing the others by a large margin. He coiled his head back and spat the same web spell he had once used on Nick at the Parrot. It hit the monsters left wing dead on gumming the feathers up and limiting motion of the wing. the Parrot thing blinked looked at its wings then back at him then fucking _started on fire._

Talyn's wings stalled for a moment as he stared gape mouthed back at the flaming giant bird now flapping towards him, the web burning away in moments. It was immediately apparent his spell hadn't somehow ignited the thing. No, it apparently just did that. You know. Start on fire. And chase things. _While screaming._ Talyn resolutely turned his head around and kept flapping while trying to think of a way to deal with the _flaming parrot of doom._

" _No one. Is EVER going to believe this story"_ He hissed to himself thinking hard. He somehow doubted it would be anything as easy as a water spell, maybe make it crash into the ocean? He'd deal with the others first. Glancing back, he saw the parrot was now halfway between him and the other three. He waited watching it out of the corner of his eye until it was almost on him and the heat from its flames was almost crisping his tail. He twisted his body almost standing on his tail and using his magic to give physics a little extra oomph. He shot straight up back flipping over the Parrot and corkscrewed straight into the Draken thing with the tentacles. He snapped at its throat, missed. And had to contort his body to avoid the spiked tail he hadn't noticed as it whipped into his face.

He avoided the tail and dropped away nearly landing on the one with the mismatched wings. It must have been angling to latch onto his back if the other one got ahold of him. he snaked his head around and ripped its dragon wing to ribbons. Unfortunately, it returned the favor before he could get a good bite in to poison it and tore half a dozen secondary's out of his left wing. He faltered pain pulsing through his wing and finally sank his fangs into its side. Disgusting blood filled his mouth as he let go and shoved the plummeting monster away. He ducked Makkaar talons even as he tried to fly with a half shredded wings and spat a fire hex at it. The Makkaar ignited and fell screaming into the ocean to join the Draken thing.

He rolled feeling the heat from the birdy of death and dove. Augmenting his damaged wings with magic he pulled up climbing faster than the parrot even with its larger wing span could manage. He saw the other Draken thing dropping towards him, all of its claws poised to rip into him and drew up his magic. the crystal band on his neck pulsed warningly as he hurled an ice spell ahead of him. The creature tried to dodge, but the spell clipped a wing, freezing it solid. The monster plummeted out of sight.

He flapped hard once, leveling out and snapping his head this way and that to locate the parrot. It was a few dozen feet to his left and charging. Focusing his magic into his head rather than his mouth he cast the strongest shield charm he could manage with the limiter still working. The glowing sphere of green magic wrapped around him just as the bird hit. But rather then deflect off or knock him back, it wrapped its burning wings around the shield essentially grabbing it. Provided of course it didn't mind not being able to fly. Which apparently it didn't.

The thing shrieked and slammed its beak into the shield repeatedly even as the flames sapped its power. _right then, water or fire?_ He thought glancing down at the rapidly approaching ocean. _Water._ He decided, he could swim and it might put out bird brain.

Grimacing he held the shield and let them fall. They were barely twenty feet from the water when the dammed thing suddenly spread its wings and let lot of the shield. Talyn barely had time to think _oh you asshole_ before the shield hit the water with a massive splash. He let himself sink rather than try to escape the water with the fucking parrot right there. Oh that was IT. He was never telling anyone he had lost to a fucking _parrot._

Muttering darkly, he dismissed the shield after taking a deep breath and with wings tucked in tight to his body, swam south. He had seen land from the air during the fight. He hadn't thought he was that far south but there was no way he was flying back to school with his wing like this.

Distantly he could sense the _fucking_ parrot circling where he had fallen waiting to see if he would surface. Reasonably the impact and the drain from the shield would have killed a normal mage. But aside from being a little winded with his wing hurting he was fine. After a while the bird dwindled from his senses. Below him he could sense the sea floor slowly rising to meet the icy shore.

Nearly an hour later he slithered out onto the beach. Utterly exhausted. He had never gone so far in this form before let alone _swam_ that far. He was going to hurt in new and interesting places for _days._

He rested on the rocks for several long minutes before closing his eyes and forcing himself into his animagus form. The fur of the tiger was a welcome relief from the cold even if his wing was just as much of a mess in this form. He'd been surprised to learn that he still had the tiger. But he supposed it wasn't that odd. Humans could inherit abilities from ancient relatives of different species. So why couldn't he, as a Cotal, retain some human specific magics?

After another long moment he picked his head up to survey where he'd ended up. The rocky beach was strewn with massive boulders leading up to an icy plane. Beyond that was a mountain. No a volcano, he realized watching smoke and steam lazily curl away from the summit. Frowning he tilted his head to the side trying to figure out what about the mountain was bothering him. After a moment a memory dredged itself up out of his mind. A dream. It felt like years ago he had had that dream. But…. _it was the same mountain._ He was looking at it from the ground rather than the sky. But he knew that mountain.

Somewhere buried deep below it. Was the Heart of the Earth.

X X X

It had taken two hours and liberal application of magic and creativity, but he was finally standing on the rim of volcano and back in his humanoid form. Looking down he could see the lava lake below and just barely, the winding path that led down to it. taking a breath, he began walking down, twenty minutes later and he was approaching where the lava met the path. Just like in the dream he wasn't really feeling the heat either. Maybe he was right and it _was_ this mountain.

He hesitated and took another step forward. The mountain shivered almost imperceptibly and to his astonishment the lava level began to drop. He stared, frozen, for a moment before nervously following the path as it was revealed.

The lava didn't fall all that quickly. Occasionally he stopped for a few moments to let it get a bit ahead of him before continuing. All in all, it took nearly twenty minutes before the entrance to the cave was revealed. He waited for the lava to drain out completely before stepping inside. Just like his dream razor edged crystals blocked the way. They shifted and fanned open allowing him through after a second.

Filled with trepidation he headed down the winding path deep into the mountain. Behind him the passage closed and the lava began to rise once more hiding the entrance.

The tunnel continued to slope downwards in an easy spiral for what seemed like nearly an hour before straightening out a bit and leveling off. The light from the crystals studded into the walls grew brighter, and like in his dreams he began to see signs of tree roots growing from the walls.

He wondered curiously just how many myths there were about this place, he had looked some of them up after the first dream. Some many stories tired back into this place, others spoke of places where other lesser heart stones could be found. Yggdrasil – somewhere in Greenland, the cradle of life (although finding a name for the place was impossible) – that one somewhere in Africa, another in America – said to be the nest of a thunderbird, a lost temple in China, another in Japan, the list went on. No one was sure just how many there were or even where. Many had been found over the eons, only to be lost again. Those that found them usually knew better then to speak of the location, but stories still grew, and evil people still sought out those connections to the earths power.

But this place was different. This was the true Heart of the web of ley lines, nodes, and heart stones that crisscrossed the world. It was said that it had only ever been found once before. An ancient mage from before even Atlantis. Before humans had figured out magic at all, it was said that this place was where humans first gained the ability to use magic, and that all human magic users on the planet were descended from that one ancient sorcerer. Talyn didn't hold much stock in stories like that, but as he came to a halt at the entrance to the great cavern and looked out at the cracked crystal in its pool of water, he had to wonder.

Taking a breath, he stepped out onto the green green grass. The trees the ringed the room seemed to whisper, their leaves shifting even without a breeze. He walked to the edge of the water staring at the crystal spike. Something crunched under his foot, he blinked and stepped back looking down. A glint of gold drew his attention. Frowning he leaned down to pick up the object. It was a bit of jewelry he realized the thin golden chain leading to something buried in the dirt. He pulled it loose curiously. Wondering who else had been here before him. He pulled a small pendant free of the dirt, frowning he brushed a weak cleaning spell over it, clearing away the dirt.

He stared blankly at it, confused, it was a tiny gold cap. It looked like it had once had something attached to it. _It looked familiar._ Why….? He blinked reaching up to tug the pendant Luna had given him free from his shirt. It lay glittering in his hand, the other dulled by time as it was, _was the same._

The one that had been buried was only different in one way, its vial of Phoenix tears was gone. He didn't doubt that if he looked he would find it here in the dirt somewhere. He let the version still around his neck go. Still staring down at its twin in his hand. Apparently the universe had a bit more fun in mind for him later, or rather, earlier.

"Have you figured it out yet?" a familiar voice asked him, he twitched jumping to his feet and spinning around. No one was there. A soft laugh sounded from the air around him. He tried to pull a shield around himself only for the magic to fizzle almost like it had when he had spoken to Death. "Honestly child, that's unnecessary." The voice he slowly realized wasn't coming from the air, it was coming from everything. The grass, the trees, but especially – the crystal behind him. He tensed turning to look back at it. It was glowing softly now tiny arcs of lightning crawling across its surface.

"Figured what out?" He asked a slow realization beginning to worm its way into his thoughts. _Impossible._ A kind of exasperated silence was his only answer. He flushed in embarrassment, he knew, he didn't want to admit it, but he knew. One of the names he had come across in his research coming back to him. "Gaia?" He asked, feeling like a little kid again, meeting some great and important person. Indeed, he _was_ meeting someone very important.

"I knew you would figure it out, my son." The voice answered with a rough chuckle. Talyn paled slightly. What exactly did you do when you found yourself talking to the very soul of the planet? "Well, you could say hello – but that's just me." Gaia teased.

"Hello" he squeaked. Gaia sighed, apparently exasperated with him.

"Child, calm down, if I didn't want you here – you wouldn't _be_ here." Talyn nodded rapidly at this, unnerved, but trying to calm down all the same. Gaia went silent for a few moments before a sigh that seemed be constructed of all the winds of the world resounded through the chamber. "This was supposed to be a moment of triumph. A Monster defeated before it could even strike." Gaia spoke after that long silence. "But it would seem that this Monster will not scuttle back into the shadows as it should." Talyn blinked confused.

"Wh…what do you mean? What monster?" he asked.

"The monster your friends faced in the far north. As for what it did…. your magic is broken child." She answered. His friends? Did she mean the group who died in Russia? They had been Snow point – he supposed you could interpret that as them being his friends.

"Why would my magic matter?" he asked puzzled.

"I used too much power to create you, I can't do it again, and neither can I heal your soul. You were supposed to be able to Heal _me_. And I would destroy the Monster myself. You would not need to fight, but she was clever. She realized what I had done, and created a threat I didn't realize to deal with you before you could grow strong." Talyn stared blankly for a moment at least some of the pieces beginning to come together. Perhaps in a way, the prophecy _did_ refer to three people Then the reason he had powerful healing magic's, with Earth sense and sorcerer adept potential. This was not something new – the Talyadras healer mages existed to heal the damage done to the earth by the Cataclysm.

There had just never been one with his potential before. And potential was all it was. He had all that power still, but with his ability to control it destroyed he couldn't use it to Heal on the scale Gaia was talking about.

"So…what now?" he asked.

"Now _we_ fight." She answered. Talyn stared blankly at the crystal. _We_? WE?

"Um…." He trailed off uncertain. She had just _told_ him his power wasn't meant for fighting even if he could use it!

"So little faith." Gaia commented, amused. "There is always a way out child. The battle isn't over until it's over. Would you stand aside and not fight? Watch as everything falls to her?" Talyn glared.

"Of course not!" he snapped back

"Good. Then when the time comes I will lend you everything I can, and we will fight." The true enormity of what was going on slowly began to trickle into his mind. Whoever was commanding those monsters was enough of a threat that Gaia, mother Earth herself, had intended to destroy them. _Personally_. Only this fucker had managed to derail that plan and now _he_ had to help fight rather than just heal as he was meant to? "I think it's time for you to head home child, you have much to think about. Do not worry about coming back here to speak to me. You are strong enough to not need to go somewhere special for that." he just nodded mutely, still in shock, wondering suddenly just who 'she' was. Gaia hadn't said. But before he could ask the cavern whited out suddenly and he found himself standing in his dorm room. Vera shrieked and flatted herself to the floor in shock.

"WHAT WASSSS THAT! YOU ASSSS!" she hissed at him. Talyn blinked and was about to answer when he realized he was holding something. He looked down it was a palm sized chunk of the crystal the spire had been made out of. He blinked down at it before looking back up at Vera. The gryphon studied him her spiked feathers slowly falling flat. "Talyn?" she asked. "What hass happened? Whatss wrong?" she frowned and glanced around. "How did you get in here anywaysss?"

"You're never going to believe me." He finally answered. She quirked an eye brow up at him.

"I'll be the judge of that." She answered tartly.

(half an hour later)

"…..Your right. I don't believe you."

"Oh _that's_ helpful!"

X X X

Adriana stared grimly at the pair before her. Snowpoints pet sorcerer adept and his best friend. This was going to be good. "So, what now?" she asked. They exchanged a look before Ashton stepped forward.

"I...well I was attacked by some of the same group that went after the team in Russia. I got away but where I ended up was…" he trailed off looking massively unconfutable. The Headmistress straightened up sharply. Eyes narrowed as she looked him over. She spotted what she had missed before. One of his wings had a snapped primary feather and the other looked a little thin even folded up as it was.

"Are you alright?" she asked sharply. "How many were there? What species? Did you see what direction they came from?" She demanded. Talyn blinked rapidly at her, startled. Vera was snickering softly off to the side. Adriana shot her a look. Talyn looked embarrassed.

"What?" Vera choked out something that sounded like 'flaming parrots' before cracking up again. She turned back to Talyn who was now a lovely shade of red as he glared at the Gryphon.

"There were three Makkaar, two of what looked like they stared off as Drakens and…a giant Parrot, that could apparently start itself on fire." She stared at him with a raised eye brow. It wasn't the strangest monster she'd ever heard of, not by a long shot, but still – the deeply embarrassed look on the boy's face made it all the more amusing.

"A…flaming parrot." She echoed, just to see the Cotal twitch. He glared murder at the gryphon for bringing the bird up but settled back to looking and her instead.

"I yes. But that's not really important it's what I found later." he pointed out, still a little red.

"Alright. What did you find?" it must be _good_ If he thought it ranked higher then more of the monsters from the cavern. Talyn hesitated for a long moment looking massively uncomfortable.

"I….i found the Heart of the Earth." He answered. He opened his mouth to continue but Adriana held up a hand, halting him. she was still for a moment, just staring at him before she finally moved. Without breaking eye contact she reached down to one of the drawers of her desk and pulled it open. With an odd sense of finality, she pulled out a large bottle of whiskey setting it down with a sharp thump. She poured it into three conjured glasses then knocked back the entirety of hers. Put it down and refilled it.

"Alright, continue." She finally said. He blinked at her and slide his gaze sideways to the gryphon who was almost convulsing in silent laughter.

"Uh…right. I um…spoke to Gaia about…." He trailed off again when Adriana face palmed with real feeling.

"Why do I even let you out of the building Ashton?" She asked dryly. He winced.

"Because life would be boring otherwise?" he asked. Vera finally lost the battle with her laughter and fell over the odd gurgle of gyphonic giggling resounding through the room. They both looked down at her, then the headmistress sighed and shook her head.

"I think I'm going to need something a little stronger for this conversation."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X X X
> 
> Que – well that was fast! And a major plot chapter. I thought this would be an interesting point to make. That Talyn isn't meant to fight and he should have had to. Lamashtu is a real monster as well, to be able to upset the plans of Gods. Now things are up in the air a bit, even the gods don't quite know whats going to happen. But then you might ask whats up with the prophecy if Lamashtu can break fate?
> 
> The reason the prophecy remains vaild will come up in the next few chapters, if your familiar with some of the theories about time travel anyways. (no that's not a spoiler, I practically hit you in the face with it mid chapter don't look at me like that!)
> 
> Anyways If you think this was good you should see what I have planned for the next one! also next chapter should be the end of Book 1. I can't think of a name for book two thought so I think I'm just going to keep them in this story and go part 1 part 2 rather than two separate stories.
> 
> (1) I shit you not, real thing. They glide more then fly but still flying snakes.


	24. Same old Song and Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Same old song and dance - aerosmith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Que – I was going to wait a week to post this but I have no self-control. This my friends is the final chapter of book 1! Book two White Out, will be posted in a bit. More info at the end of the chapter on that. 
> 
> Also reviews are still being weird. I do get them but only via email, they don’t show up on the site thus far, although oddly enough they do come up on the overall review counter in the summery. Not sure what the problem is I put an error report in and I hear others are having the same difficulty.
> 
> Also editing is squirrely at best, please ignore the caps errors, my computer isn’t auto capitalizing right now for some reason, I doubt I caught all of them

 

Every foot step echoed dully in the immense cavern, the mage lights carried by the soldiers barely lighting the hanging tips of the stalactites, casting them into deep shadows far above. A pair of researchers from china, experts on identifying magical residue, were studying one of the collapsed tunnels. Attempting to find a traceable magical signature. Snow point wanted to know if the signature matched that which was on the captured Wrysa from Africa.

 

Knowing whether this was a limited situation, if whoever was controlling these monsters was limited to Russia, or if they were dealing with one massive group was rather important after all. But given current theories it was now a toss-up between ‘fucked’ and ‘awe inspiringly fucked. Still people liked to know these things, if only so they could complain properly before they died.

 

The odd little metal and crystal devise one of the researches was using began to glow softly, Shen frowned at it, it wasn’t reacting to something in the collapsed section but farther back into the chamber. Glancing to the side he spotted one of the Russia mages, and after a mental wince at dealing directly with them, stepped over to request an escort. Not a chance in hell he was wandering around this place by himself.

 

A few minutes of arguing later and Shen was headed across the chamber with a pair of Russian battle mages following close behind. It took twenty minutes to cross the chamber at a near jog. The mage paused and eyed the devise while still a fair distance from the wall. He scowled at it and adjusted a few crystals and bits of wire then began working his way back towards the other side where the others waited in a sharp grid pattern. The two mages exchanged a wary look neither of them liked the look of this.

 

Shen paused again, studying the faintly shimmering lights hanging over the little devises screen. It was a three dimensional map of magical concentrations, for now it was ignoring what kind of magic it was, just showing where it was. He glanced at the floor and stepped away carefully before circling the spot to get a clearer reading. A grin of triumph covered his face and he turned to his guards.

 

“Call the others over there’s something under the floor here.” He ordered. They eyed him for a moment before the shorter one nodded and called the rest of the group on his radio. A short time later had a number of people trying to pry their way into the hidden chamber. The entrance they found was actually quite large and likely hadn’t been sealed like this normally. Most of the magical residue was from the spells used to warp the rock over the entrance to hide it. With all the collapsed tunnels to investigate they would have never looked at this random bit of ground if not for Shen being something of an overachiever.

 

After nearly half an hour of beating on rock that was far harder then it ought to have been someone got the idea to just tunnel around it. not long after that they broke into the hidden chamber. The mage lights cast long shadows over a disturbing scene. A large crystal dominated the room, glowing a putrid shade of green in the dim light. It was about four feet high and maybe one wide.

 

“Is…. that a heart stone?” asked one of the soldiers, aghast. The two Chinese mages exchanged a look before carefully approaching the stone and scanning it. After a few minutes Shen took a step back and shook his head.

 

“Not in the sense you were thinking. This _is_ a heart stone, but in the sense of the Talyadras heart stones. It’s a storage devise not a true Heartstone, this isn’t hooked into the web.” He answered. The whole room seemed to take a collective breath of relief at that. You didn’t need to be trained in fine detection work to sense the horrific magic radiating from the stone. It almost didn’t feel like magic anymore the way it was warped.

 

“Can you tell what the last spells set to it were? And how much power it has?” Shen glanced at the speaker. An old Vampire from India that hadn’t gotten involved in anything for something on 500 years if he remembers correctly. The fact that the creature had popped out of the woodwork and volunteered to help on this mission had been a bit of a godsend. Vampires over 300 tended to be rather terrifying in both power and ability. Turning to the stone he concentrated carefully. Discarding his scanner for the moment. Shen skated his senses over the stone, careful to not actually touch it with his magic. After a few minutes of study he came to the conclusion that the stones glow was not active magic, it was residual, this stone had been drained before they arrived.

 

At first glance this might seem like a good thing, but the fact that the stone was _visibly_ glowing from _residual energy_ was shocking. Talyadras heart stones would glow, but even at their strongest that glow was less then what this stone was currently releasing. And the _kind_ of energy. If he was reading it right, and given how warped it was he might not be, then the entirety of the power from the stone was Blood magic. _White_ Blood magic. White blood magic was not really in of itself evil, but there were exceptions to that – blood magic gained from torture held remnants of a person’s agony in it. This corrupted the magic. _All_ of the magic he sensed held a distinctly malicious spirit to it that not even the most disgusting of evil mages he had studied ever had. He wasn’t even sure if you could consider it conventionally evil anymore, it was just something _other_ now.

 

Shen pulled his magic away and turned around looking at the group. They starred back worriedly, Shen sighed and explained what he had found. They looked at him in undisguised horror at what he had to say.

 

“That is the only one right? There aren’t more of them here?” One of the younger mages asked. Shen grimaced and shook his head.

 

“The flows suggest this stone was tied into a web of some sort, the connections are gone and the residue wiped to effectively to follow, but what I can sense suggests that this stone was only secondary in such a network.

 

Everyone went silent at that, it seemed every time they turned around things just got worse.

 

X X X

 

May 23

 

Adriana smiled at the milling group of students, it was the last day, and time to send everyone home. Her grin widened with a glance at the first years. They were currently grouped together off to the side, showing a temporary cease fire in the face of being stuck in a room with all the upper years. They seemed to forget that the rules about fighting expanded to the whole school on the last day. She smiled affectionately, they would learn. This was a good batch after all. he eyes sought out the smaller group within the first. The young Lamia and Draken were to the left, the Gryphon in front, the Wrysa on the right– all but penning the Cotal into the corner of the room. A wise decision she felt, he was completely incapable of staying out of trouble.

 

All the revelations of the last years gave her a migraine, it would take a fool to not see that someone was playing a game and the Gods were not taking it kindly. After telling her about Gaia he had mentioned Death before clamming up looking shifty eyed. She hadn’t asked.

 

Plausible deniability and all that.

 

She didn’t doubt that the Gods had something in the works to attempt to deal with this. But the knowledge that whoever they faced had already defeated Destiney and broken Gaia’s first plan to deal with them was terrifying. That the Gaia felt she needed to deal with this _personally_ was terrifying to _begin_ with. Talyns healing magic’s being the answer was obvious when she looked back on it. He had been tailor made to use healing earthmagics on a scale never before known. Obviously someone had seen this long before them and taken steps to take care of the situation. That the English’s Dark Lord may very well be just another pawn was worrying, just how many others like him had been tools to deal with threats? Whether they knew it or not?

 

The clock chimed behind her jolting her out of her thoughts. Sighing she shook her head, speculation could only take you so far, they needed to wait and see what happened now. Nearly two months had passed now with no more major discoveries or chats with Gods for Talyn. The silence worried her.

 

She flicked her wrist the snap of a firecracker spell cracking through the air. Everyone shut up and turned their attention to her. She cast her gaze around once more looking over the entire group before speaking.

 

“Another year has come and gone, and most of us are here to see it go. For this we can be thankful given the events that have shaken the world.” She paused and surveyed them again her expression softening a hair. “For all that we fight amongst each other here, _remember_ in these times of turmoil that outside these walls we are _family_. This is not a time for argument and death, we have greater things to deal with. Remember that Snow point was _built by a seer_. A seer who wish us trained to deal with a threat to the entire world. This is why even after graduation we swear to hold **no** loyalty above that which we hold to each other and this school. For we never knew from where this threat would arise. Perhaps this coming danger is what we were meant to deal with, perhaps it is not, but prepare all the same. I do not see this situation ending in anything less than War.” Grim silence met her words, they all had been following the news, they knew the whispers of what was coming. Reminding of the reason for the founding just brought it further to light what might be asked of them.

 

She inclined her head to the with a smile. “it is time to head home then, for those of you who know the drill, head to your departure points. For the first years. There are four permeant gates here on the west pier. Each gate will be temporarily linked to six places in the world. Lists are posted next to the gates. Locate the point closest to your home and wait by that gate. I will be activating then in turn. Remember the point you leave from as you will be returning there to get to school next year.” she smirked at them. “Fair warning if you miss your gate to or from school you get to get here like the first years.”

 

The mad scramble that followed was always treat as the first years tried to rush out the doors while maintaining their group and the older years pretended they were thinking about dissembling them.

 

Rolling her eyes, she apperated to the gates. As headmistress she was the only one who could pull that on the island. A fact she never passed up taking advantage of.

The four gates were simple marble arches, the magic’s embedded into them made them glow nearly blindingly to mage sight. Permanent gates were a wonder, and incredibly useful. She leaned against the far left gate and waited for everyone to arrive and peruse the lists next to each gate.

 

It took nearly half an hour for everyone to get sorted out and into their groups. She spotted Ashton standing with his Gryphon friend as well as what looked to be a Pantharian, a fourth year Talyadras, and a pair of fifth years – one, a Cambion of all things and a werewolf. That had to be the white gryphon group she figured. The cambion never seemed to get dropped off at the same place twice, but the werewolf and the Talyadras both normally headed to white gryphon before going elsewhere.

 

Turning her attention away she prepared to open the gate to the first location.

 

X X X  


Talyn was nervous, he’d never taken a gate before. Vera had happily spent the last ten minutes telling him just how safe the gates were. The more she went on however the more he wanted to twitch. They were luckily not going _last_ , he would have turned around and just walked away if they had been.

 

“White Gryphon!” The headmistress called sharply. The group of six came forward. Talyn glanced at the others. White gryphon was a popular spot it would seem. Most other locations had taken one or two several had no one and were skipped.

 

A rippling wall of rainbow light briefly cascaded across the space within the arch followed by black, then with snap he was looking out onto the plateau above the city. Argos hissed at it projecting a feeling of hunger. Talyn sent a mental rebuke at him and the Wrysa quieted while still eyeing the gate hungrily.

 

“Go!” the headmistress ordered sharply. The small group stepped into the gate. Vera had told him that he would feel a brief moment of weightlessness like he was falling before stepping out on the other end. They stepped through, the werewolf was first he saw the wolf stumble coming out the other side and look back at the gate with a frown. Dread pooled in Talyns gut, but it was too late the rest of them crossed into the gate at pretty much the same time. He felt the moment of weightlessness like Vera had said, but before it could end something slammed into them. The tunnel formed by the gate warped, magic shrieking in protest as the spell tried to hold itself together. He looked back to see Adriana staring back at them wide-eyed just as the barely visible edge of the marble arch cracked. The gate groaned and wrenched again. Talyn lashed out instinctively trying to reinforce the spell, the magic slipped through his mental fingers like water, he couldn’t get ahold of the writhing spell. A sudden ominous feeling gripped him like something immense was rising above them. Argos shrieked and tried to absorb the magic lashing at the gate but there was simply too much of it, he wasn’t going to be able to turn the attack.

 

Lashing out quicker than thought Talyn magic wrapped around the others still in the gate with him and hung on. The blast hit, tearing the gate completely free of the terminus. He tried to grab the spell and stick it back to the anchors even as he held onto everyone in gate. Vera shrieked adding her magic to the effort. Talyn barred his teeth in anger as the spell slid farther. _Fuck this shit! Every time! Every fucking time!!!_

 

The limiter around his neck shut down as he forced everything he had into the broken gate spell and twisted. The world at either end of the gate disappeared in a rainbow cascade of light before they plummeted into darkness.

 

On the other side of the world Lamashtu smirked smugly, having watched them plummet into the void. With _that_ out of the way she could finally begin her true plans. It had been 20,000 years in the making but then a perfect plan would be, and _finally_ it was time.

 

 

 

//

_The gryphon Treyvan on the nature of Permeant gates._

_“ass passed to Vikterrren and Ssskandrranon by Urrtho himssself. The making of Gatess warrrps time, asss water warrps wood; the making of perrrmanent gates warpss it more._

_Storm warning -_

//

 

They were wrapped in darkness, for Damian this was nothing new. The life of a Cambion was something that rarely happened in the light. His senses were something not entirely mortal, appropriate given that he himself was not entirely mortal. People tended to think that Demons must just be another race of magical creatures. But the myths had more right than anyone would guess. As it was he could sense the groan of time bending around them as the little Sorcerer adept tried to save them and warped the gate into something different. It was at its core, still a gate, but the kid had tried to coble the broken bits of the spell back together and not gotten all the pieces or put everything where it belonged. He extended his own magic around then as the wild spell dragged them a little too close places best left unvisited. They glanced off that as well as other dimensions as they ricocheted through reality like a wild pinball.

The wild spell finally caught on something, he got a brief glimpse of the gryphon’s magic woven through it and felt dread, there was barely enough time to curse then as with a wrench they changed directions. Rocketing though time and space like a missile now. He braced himself for what he was sure was coming if he’d read the magic’s right.

The patchwork spell shrieked as they hit a wall of power rippling through the void, it was a whirlpool and a storm, the spell contorted but held together as they shot free ridding the diminishing shock waves. Magic shifted, even his own felt different. The _reality_ around them felt fundamentally different. He tried to reach out to Ashtons mind, trying to tell him to stop, no one had ever gone this far before. Who knew what would happen!

Ashtons mind was too deeply buried in pain and wild magic to hear him though, the magic seemed to be stabilizing a bit however, but not enough. He sensed the edges of the next hit long before it came. The two events were after all mirror images of each other. The rattle started off light, increasing rapidly as the magic in the void began to destabilize. A part of his mind that would always reveal in death and destruction all but swooned at the sheer devastation this event had caused.

The spell wrenched pulling him back to the here and now. Ashton was out of power; he was grasping at the dregs as he tried to hold it together. Finally, they hit. The spell shattered like glass the void whiting out around them as they were slammed back into reality with all the subtly of a meteor.

X X X

He felt like someone had wrung him out like a wash rag and left him out to dry in the sun. he tried to move an arm only to find he was no longer in his humanoid form. His long coiling body twitched tiredly instead.

“I think he’s awake.” An unfamiliar voice commented. “Come on kiddo, we don’t have all week.” The voice was female and sounded a bit older then him. he cracked an eye open and tried to glance around but crushing exhaustion was still weighing him down, _he could barely move his damn eyeball!_ That’s how tired he was!

“ _what?”_ he asked. There was a protected silence at this.

“Can he speak anything other than Parsaltounge in this form?” The voice asked.

“Ssaa, no I do not think sso.” He heard Vera answer. “That iss what _mindspeech_ isss for.” Her voice all but dripped sarcasm.

“True, but does he have enough magic to even talk?” a male voice this time. Talyn pried his other eye open and finally got a decent look at their surroundings. They were sitting at the bottom of a crater. From what he could see with his head still on the ground it was rather impressive in size to. He hissed in annoyance and with great effort picked his head up. Surveying the group, he noted with relief that everyone was alive and in one piece. Argos slid down the side of the crater with a happy sort of hiss/bark and all but tackled him just like any other dog happy to see its owner. Talyn heaved a sigh at the Wrysa’s antics and ignored Vera’s snigger. Pushing the Wrysa off of himself with wing he coiled himself up properly and tried to take stock of his magic. only the barest sparks of magic greeting him, not enough to use mindspeech, he shouldn’t even really be conscious at this kind of level! He huffed and looked at Vera expectantly. She clacked her beak, annoyed.

“Not enough magic?” she asked, he nodded. Vera sighed and fluffed her feathers in aggravation before turning to look at the male student who had come through the broken gate with them.

“Alrright then Damien, he iss awake, what is it you wanted to tell us?” she demanded. The guy, Damien grimaced.

“While I am indeed happy to be alive.” He inclined his head at Talyn, who only narrowed his eyes. “Your grabbing the gate the way you did has caused us a rather severe problem.”

“I don’t see how. We’re not even all that far from civilization.” The other girl pointed out. She waved off to the west. “The plains aren’t more the two days flight that way.” Damien snorted a humorless smile on his face.

“I think you will find that if you travel two days that way, _the plains are not there._ ” He almost growled. They all stared at him blankly.

“How is that.” She demanded. Damien gave them all a look of frustrated aggravation before snapping out a spell.

“Tempus!” He hissed and a series of glowing numbers appeared in the air. Everyone stared at them in shock. Damien snorted. “As I said you will not find the plains there, Mistbird! What you might just find is Urthos tower!”

“Ten thousand years.” Nick said somewhat blankly. “Ten _thousand_ years.” He turned to look at Talyn.

“WHAT THE FUCK MAN!” he snarled. Talyn glared back his jaws gaping open just enough to show off his fangs.

“Enough you two! We can’t afford to fight right now. We have to find a way back without interfering with history!” Mistbird snapped. Something was niggling at the back of Talyns mind, he couldn’t quite remember, but there was something……ah – yes, he supposed this _did_ count then didn’t it? she said he would know when he ended up in the situation she had seen. But her note was in his pocket in his _other_ form. With a grimace he turned his senses outward and attempted a trick he had only recently learned. Locating a relatively weak layline nearby he carefully tapped into it and started to drain it. Compared to his normal reserve, it was barely a drop in the bucket, but he only needed a drop for this. Shutting off the line after a moment, he turned to concentrate. With monumental effort his form blurred and warped. Changing from serpent to humanoid. The others all blinked at him in surprise as he changed.

He was left gasping in his humanoid form a few moments later. “Why did you do that?” Mistbird asked, confused. “I thought you didn’t have enough magic?” he just shook his head.

“A few months ago I ran into a seer, she gave me a note she told me was for when the truly absurd happened. A lot of mindboggling shit happens in my life, but _this_ is just.” He shrugged while they looked on, wide eyed, as he dug around in his pockets for the note. Considering it for a moment as the others waited with baited breath he opened it. Inside was a little scribble of a bizarre looking creature with a little arrow pointing to it and the words “LOOK! A crumple horned snorklack!!” He blinked and blinked again, his mind blank for a moment before he started laughing. Ok, he’d needed that, he would admit it. in parenthesis under the drawing were the words (go find Uthro, remember what I told you!)

The others stared at him for a moment before Damien reached out and snagged the note to read it. He blinked, then snorted and passed it along. Pretty soon the entire group was either staring at the note in mystification or laughing.

“And what exactly are you supposed to remember?” Nick asked dryly. Talyn sniggered one last time before smiling wryly at them.

“It matters very little what actually happens, in the face of what people _think_ happened.” He answered. Damien nodded slowly.

“And we are to find Urtho.” He added thoughtfully. “History says we were never here. And provided it _continues to say we were never here_ well….the we weren’t were we? The others all nodded thoughtfully. Vera brightened suddenly.

“This is perfect!!!” she all but chirped. Everyone stared at her, confused.

“How is this perfect?” Mistbird asked tiredly. Vera shook her head.

“Talyn can’t learn to use his magic properly for many things as there is no one strong enough to fix his mistakes if he messes up! but _Urtho_ could teach him!” Damien gave her a long look.

“Do you really think you can stand to be around him for the time it would take to teach Ashton anything useful?” He asked darkly. Vera hissed, insulted.

“How can you think to be near our creator would be a trial!!!” she demanded. Damien smirked at her grimly.

“Because you can’t say anything about the assassin, Gryphon. And if you walk by that assassin in the hall, _you can’t kill him.”_ he hissed back. Vera stopped dead and stared at him in undisguised horror.

X X X

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Que – and that my friends is the end of book one. the next book I have decided will be named ‘White Out’ to keep with the snow theme and avoid any ‘storm’ ect titles as I already have a series with that name ^_^ when chapter 1 of book two is posted I will post an alert chapter on this story so you all know about it so no worries about hunting it down. Also I went and drew the flaming parrot because everybody seemed to love it. its over on the snowpoint tumblr.


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